Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TYMPANY, n. Also timpany. And reduced forms timpan (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.), tympan. The middle part of the front of a house, raised above the level of the rest of the wall, formed like a gable, and giving an attic apartment in the roof (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.; Abd. 1973). Hence combs. tympany gavel, id. (Mry. 1825 Jam.). See Gavel; tympany room, the room formed by a tympany. [′tɪmpɑni]Slg. 1719 Slg. Burgh Rec. (1889) 162:
When the stone work is finished to be putt on in a plain way without flankers which the tympan would occasion.Sc. 1731 Trans. Cmb. & Wm. Antiq. Soc. LXI. 212:
The jetings on the wings or office houses, particularly those in the midle of each, finish in a timpany.Sc. 1752 Session Papers, Petition J. Finlayson (19 Feb.) 2:
The fore Wall of the Fore-shot was raised into a Timpany or Storm Gavel.Abd. 1780 Aberdeen Jnl. (26 June):
A Tympany Room and a Garret.Sc. 1800 Edb. Advertiser (18 Feb.) 107:
A good room in the tympany, with a closet.Gsw. 1884 Gsw. Past & Present I. 106:
An old house with tympany windows.