'Cymbal' is Greek for 'cup-shaped thing' — named for the instrument's concave, ringing bowl.
A concave metal disc that produces a ringing, clashing, or shimmering sound when struck, crashed together in pairs, or allowed to vibrate freely.
From Old English 'cymbal' and Old French 'cymbale,' both from Latin 'cymbalum,' from Greek 'kumbalon' (a cymbal), from 'kumbē' (a cup, a bowl), from PIE *kumb- (a hollow, a cavity). The word was reinforced in Middle English by the Old French form. The Greek name reflects the instrument's cup-like shape — cymbals are essentially shallow bowls of hammered bronze whose concave form produces
The phrase 'a tinkling cymbal' from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians — 'though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal' — made 'cymbal' one of the earliest musical instrument words known to English readers through the Bible.