cymbal n Also sp cimbal, cymball, simball [First appears (as simbal) in an English cookbook of 1653 for a sort of cookie flavored with rosewater, coriander, and anise seed; the name is perh a blend of simnel (cf esp OED2 simnel n. 1.b) and jumble n, which in the 17th century referred to a very similar confection.] chiefly NEng obs
Originally appar a type of cookie (see quot 1915); later a kind of doughnut or friedcake n 1.
1828 Webster Amer. Dict., Cimbal, a kind of cake. 1831 Amer. Traveller (Boston MA) 1 Feb 1/5, It reminded us of one of the old blue laws of our native state . . , which enacted that no man should carry to meeting for his luncheon on the Sabbath, a nut-cake (alias a dough-nut, alias a cymbal in fashionable parlance) so long that he could not, while feeding at one end of it, keep the pigs from eating at the other end with a staff six feet long. [DARE Ed: Reprinted from the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer; the writer is evidently from CT.] 1846 Daily Picayune (New Orleans LA) 24 July [2]/3, The ‘Cymbal’ Man.—This well known individual . . confines his rambles to the French part of the town, where he finds a ready market for his “cymbals.” . . He plays upon no instrument, but deals in “doughnuts or crullers.” 1865 (1889) Whitney Gayworthys 36 NEng, After they had popped corn, and roasted apples, and eaten simballs, . . they had all gone to bed. 1867 Holmes Guardian Angel 225 eMA, She had filled the house with fragrant suggestions of good things coming. . . And chiefly the genteel form of doughnut called in the native dialect cymbal. . which graced the board with its plastic forms, suggestive of the most pleasing objects,—the spiral ringlets pendent from the brow of beauty,—the magic circlet, which is the pledge of plighted affection,—the indissoluble knot, which typifies the union of hearts, which organs were also largely represented. 1892 Pool Roweny 263 eMA, Mrs. Tuttle was frying doughnuts. He successfully concealed his great surprise when he discovered that Mrs. Tuttle called these fried cakes “sim-balls.” He had never heard that word before, and it affected him almost to the verge of hysteria. [DARE Ed: He is an upper-class Bostonian visiting in a rural village.] 1895 DN 1.394 seMA, Simball: one of the varieties of doughnut. 1915 DN 4.239 MA, Cymballs. . . Jumbles made with caraway seed and rose water. [DARE Ed: From “old recipes preserved in the family of Miss Rogers or collected by her.”] 1926 Lebanon Valley Cookery 90 ceNY, Aunt’s Cymballs (Doughnuts)—3 pounds flour, 1½ pounds sugar, ½ pound butter, 8 eggs, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 grated nutmeg. 1931–33 LANE Worksheets seMA, Cymbal. . . a doughnut without a hole. Cymbal used to be universal. But the center didn’t cook through. A sea captain down on the coast got the idea of the hole.
Etymological Supplement:
1653 Kent, Elizabeth Grey, Countess of A True Gentlewomans Delight 67, To make Simbals. Take fine Flower dryed, and as much Sugar as Flower, then take as much whites of Eggs as will make it a paste, and put in a little Rosewater, then put in a quantity of Coriander seed, and Annise seed, then mould it up in that fashion you will bake it in.
< Early English Books Online; Wing (2d ed.) 317A>