momblishness

Gammerstang commented on the word momblishness

(noun) - (1) Talk, muttering. Of Teutonic mummelen; old word.

--Nathaniel Bailey's Etymological English Dictionary, 1749

(2) Explained as "muttering talk." Error for moublienies, in "ne moubliemies," forget-me-nots, about 1500. Momble, mumble.

--Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, List of Spurious Words, 1933

(3) "Ne momblysnesse and souenesse," no mumbling talk nor noisy sound.

--Charles Richardson's New Dictionary of the English Language, 1836-1837

The passage, "Ne momblysnesse and souenesse," found in a 1532 edition of Chaucer's works, was perhaps the origin of the long-lived confusion about this faux word. As late as 1889, William Whitney carelessly included momblishness in his Century Dictionary as the same "muttering talk" of his predecessors, citing an early 1731 edition of Bailey's dictionary as the source.

January 19, 2018