"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Tuesday, 3 March 2009

Discombobulate

Fhina recently commented that she was discombobulated. A wonderful word and I had to put it on this blog.

Discombobulate - a verb meaning to throw into confusion. The noun from it is discombobulation.

To quote from Fhina's posting - "Discombobulate is an American invention, first appearing around 1834, but its origins are a bit cloudy. It may be, as the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, simply a humorous alteration of "discompose" or "discomfit." The Dictionary of American Regional English, however, suggests that the "bob" in "discombobulate" may have come from "bobbery," a somewhat antiquated word meaning "uproar" or "confusion.""

2 comments:

  1. There are moments at work, when I am thoroughly, and completely...

    Discombobulated

    So I fake it.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Discombobulate is one of my most favorite words :)

    ReplyDelete