Not only was this missing from
Everything, but the
OED drew a blank, too: They've got "
bodging", "
Bodhisattva", and "
bodice" all in a row, no "bodhran" in sight.
My faith is shook.
Go figure. Well, at least they've got "
planxty" and "
boreen" (and "
bohreen", too, which is the same word as "
boreen") (nothing to do with
Niels Bohr, by the way).
A bodhran (pron. with a silent 'h', something like "borrun") is a single-headed
Irish goat-skin
hand drum, held more or less vertically by a
cruciate (
cruciform?) framework extending across the back. The bodhran is beaten with the two ends of double-ended
drumstick, called a "
cipin" (pron. "ki-peen") or "
tipper". I seem to recall having read somewhere that the beater was traditionally made of
bone, but nowadays wood seems to be the usual thing. The drum itself is (roughly) between fifteen and twenty-four inches in
diameter, and two to six inches deep. Varying sources give varying measurements.
This is the muffled, rapidly struck
drum often heard in traditional
Irish instrumental music; at a faster
tempo, it's almost like a deep rattling. It's wonderfully propulsive when done right. The word "can be translated as '
tray' or '
thundered,' '
deafening' or 'dull sounding' "
1 in the
Irish language.
References:
1 http://www.ifccsa.org/bodhran.html (Nifty page! Much information!)
Others:
http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/~spencer/FF/B.html#bodhran
http://www.andysfronthall.com/bodhran.html
The bodhran web ring:
http://www.thebringers.com/bwr_home.htm