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fimble. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
fimble, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
fimble in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
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)
- (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)
- The male hemp plant.
Further reading
- Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FEMBLE”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G P Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
See also
Anagrams