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Yesterday I discovered that in French a drumstick is a baguette de tambour<\/strong>, which conjured up images of French drummers playing their drums with long loaves of bread.<\/p>\n The word baguette<\/strong> comes from the Italian word bacchetta<\/em> (little rod), a diminutive of bacchio<\/em> (rod), from the Latin baculum<\/em> (stick, staff). As well as meaning a type of French bread, it can also refer to “a small moulding of semicircular section” and “a gem, ususually a diamond, cut in a long rectangular shape” [Source: OED<\/a>].<\/p>\n The French word tambour<\/strong>, which is also found in English and means a frame used in embroidery or a drum, comes from the Persian word tab\u1fd1r<\/em> or from the Arabic word \u1e6dub\u016bl<\/em>, which both mean ‘drum’. The word tambourine comes from the same root, as does timbre [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n Some more drum-related French vocabulary:<\/p>\n – le tambour = drum
\n– la batterie = drum kit \/ drums
\n– Je joue de la batterie = I play the drums
\n– tambouriner = to drum
\n– pianoter \/ tambouriner sur la table = to drum one’s fingers on the table
\n– le tambourin = tambourine
\n– le (joueur de) tambour = drummer
\n– batteur (-euse) = drummer (in rock\/jazz band)
\n– le roulement de tambour = drum roll
\n– la caisse claire = side\/snare drum
\n– la grosse caisse = bass drum
\n– la bo\u00eete \u00e0 rythme = drum machine
\n– le tambour de frein = brake drum
\n– le bidon de p\u00e9trole = oil drum<\/p>\n