fimble

English

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈfɪmbəl/

Etymology 1

From a dialectal variant of fumble.

Verb

fimble (third-person singular simple present fimbles, present participle fimbling, simple past and past participle fimbled)

  1. (intransitive, dialectal) To fumble; do (anything) imperfectly or irresolutely.

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch femele, fimele (“cannabis brevior”), from fimelen (“to tease: flax, hemp, wool, etc.; to move quickly, fiddle, play, trifle”) (whence Dutch fijmelen, femelen), related to Middle Low German fimmelen, fimmeren (“to grope about”), German fimmeln (“to grope; fumble”), West Frisian fimelje (“to pick; fiddle' trifle”), English fimble (“to fumble”). Alternatively, it is sometimes suggested that Middle Dutch femele is from French chanvre) femelle (“female (hemp)”), which was applied to the male hemp plant as it is smaller and was therefore believed to be female; this would parallel the old designation of the larger, female plant as carl-hemp (“man-hemp”).[1]

Noun

fimble (plural fimbles)

  1. The male hemp plant.
Alternative forms
Further reading
  1. “fimble”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

See also

Anagrams
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.