c.1300, from Old French trompette "trumpet," diminutive of trompe (see trump (n.2)). The verb is recorded from 1520s; figurative sense of "to proclaim, extol" is attested from 1580s.
A brass instrument with a brilliant tone, much used in classical music, as well as in military music and jazz.
were of a great variety of forms, and were made of divers materials. Some were made of silver (Num. 10:2), and were used only by the priests in announcing the approach of festivals and in giving signals of war. Some were also made of rams' horns (Josh. 6:8). They were blown at special festivals, and to herald the arrival of special seasons (Lev. 23:24; 25:9; 1 Chr. 15:24; 2 Chr. 29:27; Ps. 81:3; 98:6). "Trumpets" are among the symbols used in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 1:10; 8:2). (See HORN.)
in music, brass wind musical instrument sounded by lip vibration against a cup mouthpiece. Ethnologists and ethnomusicologists use the word trumpet for any lip-vibrated instrument, whether of horn, conch, reed, or wood, with a horn or gourd bell, as well as for the Western brass instrument. The technical distinction between trumpet and horn is that one-third of the tube length of a trumpet is conical and two-thirds is cylindrical, while the horn's tube is the opposite. Both types are found throughout the world. For example, non-Western long trumpets are as dispersed as the kakaki of West Africa, the Persian and Arab nafir, the laba of China, and the spectacular dung-chen of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.