In a description of an incident in what sjmaxq calls the Sepoy Revolution I saw the following:
"The beating of drums, the rattle of tomtoms,.."
Which surprised me a bit, as I thought the word was from
American aborigine (thought I was going to say Indian, didn't you ?) ceremonial musical percussion instrument.
So I tried to check this, starting with a dictionary definition.

You won't believe it, but I could not find a dictionary definition of this word! Dozens of sites about its use in software ads.

I still think it a doubtful choice to describe an Asian Indian percussion instrument. Comments, please.

The online dictionaries insist on a hyphen. The AHD entry (http://www.bartleby.com/61/94/T0259400.html) says that it comes from Hindi.

My own association is with Africa. We had an African tomtom when I was a child. Indeed my parents still have it. The zebraskin top is a dead giveaway as to its origin.

Bingley

i am with my dear Mr Bingley on tom tom, tom (tam)is used for drum in many english words.. (the one you just posted the other day Dr Bill, (i forget how to spell it, but ear drum), and tambore is an other drum word, and as is tamborine, (a little drum.)

the tam(tom) (the vowel tends to be A in english, but in some words its O or I--which makes perfect sense!) shows up in words for 'cloth stretched into a hoop for embroidery' (tambore work)in both english and italian, and lots of other drum like applications.--little straight sided baking dishes, are 'timbales'- to make 'little drums' of custard or custard like foods.(timbales comes to us from the french)

i think we covered some of them not too long ago.. (with in the year).