chime: [13] Etymologically, chime is the same word as cymbal – indeed it originally meant ‘cymbal’ in English – but the route by which it reached English is not altogether clear. Latin cymbalum was borrowed into Old French as chimbe, which is perhaps the most likely source of the English word, whose earliest forms include chimbe. However, Old English also acquired the Latin word, as cimbal, and it has been speculated that this may have survived into the Middle English period as *chimbel, whose last syllable was misinterpreted as bell.
This would have opened the way to a misanalysis of the word as chime bell, a term which does actually occur from the 13th to the 15th centuries. This theory has the advantage of explaining the transference of the word’s meaning from ‘cymbals’ to ‘bells’, which occurred between the 14th and 15th centuries. => cymbal
mid-14c., chyme, from chime (n.). Originally of metal, etc.; of voices from late 14c. To chime in originally was musical, "join harmoniously;" of conversation by 1838. Related: Chimed; chiming.
c. 1300, chymbe "cymbal," from Old English cymbal, cimbal, also perhaps through Old French chimbe or directly from Latin cymbalum (see cymbal, the modern word for what this word originally meant). Evidently the word was misinterpreted as chymbe bellen (c. 1300) and its sense shifted to "chime bells," a meaning attested from mid-15c.
