wigglesome

English

WOTD – 18 May 2024

Etymology

From wiggle +‎ -some (suffix denoting things characterized by specific conditions or qualities, usually to a considerable degree).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪɡl̩səm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪɡ(ə)lˌsəm/
• Hyphenation: wig‧gle‧some

Adjective

wigglesome (comparative more wigglesome, superlative most wigglesome)

1. (informal) Characterized or marked by wiggling.

   Synonym: wiggly

   • 1866 August, “Little Gooseberry; or, The Book that Brought Bags of Gold”, in The Tract Magazine and Christian Miscellany, London: The Religious Tract Society […], →OCLC, page 201:

     "She's as wigglesome and unsettled as ever a sailor on land, or a fish out of the sea," said Granny, […]

   • 1899, Eva E. Mixer, “Original Devices for Interesting the Little Folks”, in Proceedings of the Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the Nebraska State Teachers’ Association Held at Lincoln, Nebraska, December 27, 28 and 29, 1898, Fremont, Neb.: […] Fremont Tribune, →OCLC, page 119:

     Our children are unusually wigglesome—something, anything to quiet them, and we deal out toothpicks, shoe pegs, or something equally as foolish, hoping that quiet will again be restored, forgetting that we are only amusing, or soothing our little friends, when we might be giving them pleasant seat work, that would make the thought of some previous lesson more fully alive in their little minds.

   • 1900, Annie Fellows Johnston, “‘One Flew West’”, in The Little Colonel’s House Party, Boston, Mass.: The Page Company, published February 1923, →OCLC, pages 56–57:

     I wonder what she will say when she sees a certain pink parasol that I saw in that box, and a white sash with pink rosebuds on it, and slippers that I'm sure wouldn't fit anything else in the house but her own wigglesome little feet.

   • 1947–1948, Edward E[lmer] Smith, “Constance Out-Worsels Worsel”, in Children of the Lens (FP Science Fiction), Reading, Pa.: Fantasy Press, published 1954, →OCLC, page 101:

     Of course I helped you, you wigglesome clunker!

   • 2008, Judith Merkle Riley, The Serpent Garden, page 116:

     You would think that the problem with painting children is that they are so wigglesome you cannot take a likeness, but the real problem is that they don't have much in the way of features except big eyes and foreheads and round cheeks.

   • 2016, David Weber, Shadow of Victory:

     “Grander scale?” he repeated, this time allowing that wigglesome eyebrow to rise.

   • 2023, Sophie May, The Twin Cousins, page 13:

     "No'm, for Baby Proudfit's so squirmy and wigglesome.

Translations

characterized or marked by wiggling — see also wiggly

• Finnish: hytisevä
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can