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.