Probably from a Vulgar Latin root *centipollium, from Latin centipellium, centipellio (“third stomach of a ruminant”) < centum + pellium, as bagpipes were made from animal stomachs. Compare also Italian centopelle (“tripe”). Alternatively from the variant form cimpoaie, perhaps from an earlier *șimpoaie and this from Latin symphonia (compare Italian zampogna (“bagpipe”), Piedmontese ciamporgna; cf. also Portuguese sanfonha (“hurdy-gurdy”) and Romansch zampuogn (“type of bell”)) or Hungarian csimpolya, which seems more likely to have come from the Romanian word instead.
cimpoi n (plural cimpoaie)
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | ||
| nominative-accusative | cimpoi | cimpoiul | cimpoaie | cimpoaiele | |
| genitive-dative | cimpoi | cimpoiului | cimpoaie | cimpoaielor | |
| vocative | cimpoiule | cimpoaielor | |||