fimble
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From a dialectal variant of fumble.
Verb edit
fimble (third-person singular simple present fimbles, present participle fimbling, simple past and past participle fimbled)
- (intransitive, dialectal) To fumble; do (anything) imperfectly or irresolutely.
Etymology 2 edit
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 edit
fimble (plural fimbles)
- The male hemp plant.
Alternative forms edit
Further reading edit
- Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FEMBLE”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
- ^ “fimble”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.