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Most words ending in "mble" often refer to being inexact (eg amble, ramble), lowly (eg humble), confused (bumble, jumble, mumble) , not complete (crumble), etc in other words fairly negative. Why is this?

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 1,487 • Replies: 12

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@neil dalton,

coincidence.

what about preamble? nothing negative there.

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@Ragman,

Ensemble.

etc.

Sheer coincidence in the ones you cited, Neil.

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I've always like scrambled eggies.

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I'm inclined to agree with Merry Andrew and Ragman, re coincidence, but still am amused by neil dalton's list. My first answer, mumbling to myself again, is that there is something comfortable about the conjunction of the letters m, b, l, and e. Comforting or relaxing, even lethargic, or enervating. I do tend to get more and more vague when I am enervated.

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@neil dalton,

not sure...

not very nimble one might suspect.

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I'm sure there is a more exact etymological reason, but I don't know what it is at the moment.

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@neil dalton,

I can hear a rumble in a thimble, but there's a bumble bee who is humble because he fumbles over bryan gumble who is know to jumble over his words and has tumbled in the ratings.

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I thought we might have asked Fannie Kemble or David Trimble if they felt inexact going thru life, but it's too late, since they're dead, so I decided to gamble that I could assemble, without a grumble, an ensemble of words with an -mble in them, to see if I could unscramble the puzzle of whether they had anything in common, to get tinto the very numbles of the puzzle as it were. But in the rough-and-tumble of getting the words "tout ensemble" I found that even if I'd had some sort of linguistic wimble, they just didn't cohere. I did find that if you go to www.dictionary.com and enter *mble it will give you all the words that have mble in them (the asterisk means something like "any string of letters that's followed by")

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I think I remember that the asterisk is called something like a "wild card operator" when used in searches, which is a great name for something and is what it SHOULD be called even if I'm misremembering and it's not actually called that.

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McT wrote:

I'm sure there is a more exact etymological reason, but I don't know what it is at the moment.

For sure, and I have an essay somewhere that I'll try to find when at home.

In the mean time, take a look here:

Quote:

Phonaesthemes
It has been noted that various phonetic sequences in English are associated with a particular meaning. For example, many words beginning with gl- are associated with a dim light : glisten, glimmer, glow, gleam… This phenomenon is termed phonaesthesia in English, and the elements which make it up as phonaesthemes or idéophones in French.
The main phonaesthemes in English are said to be the following at the beginning of words:
/dr/ - pulling : drag, draw, drawl
/kr/ - not straight : crooked, cross, crank…
/sm/ - dirty : smear, smirch, smudge…
/spr/ - spread : spread, sprinkle, sprout…

And at the end of words:

-ash - violent : bash, slash, smash
- ip " small, light : flip, sip, pip
- ump " soft round mass : bump, hump, stump
- amble, - umble : confusion : scramble, fumble, tumble.

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Here too:

Quote:

FORMS EXAMPLES SEMANTICS

-ag lag, flag (v.), sag, `droopy' and `flabby'
bag, drag

-amble amble, ramble, `locomotion'
scramble, shamble

-ash gnash, crash, trash, `breaking' or
smash, bash, dash `fragments'

-ee shivaree, jamboree, `absence
jubilee, spree, of restraint'
whoopee, whee, `carefree abandon'
free, yippee, glee

-eazy sleazy, greasy, `the sleaze factor'
queasy

-ician logician, beautician, `practicioner'
mortician, magician,
syntactician,
dietician,

-icious delicious, luscious, `sensual indulgence,
scrumptious, `appealing to the
nutritious, senses'
voluptuous,
licentious

-ump hump, rump, bump, `heavy masses'
crump, lump, stump

-ush lush, slush, gush, `moist' and
flush `oozy'

-utter mutter, stutter, `utter'
sputter, splutter

-urry scurry, worry, `haste' and
flurry, blurry, `confusion'
hurry

ob- objectionable, `objectionable'
obnoxious,
obtrusive,
obstreperous,
obstinate

cr- crawl, cringe, `bent'
creep, crumple

fl- flitter, flow, `phenomena
flicker, flurry of movement'

gl- glitter, glow, `visual
glare, gleam phenomena'

sl- slip, slide, sled, `horizontal
slime, sledge, sleigh, movement',
sluice `lack of
traction'

sw- swoop, swell, swish, `flourish',
swoon, swagger `sweep'

tor- torture, torment, `pain'
tortuous

tur- turbulent, turment, `violence'
turmoil

tw- twist, twirl, tweak, `twisting motion'
twine, twinge

vi- vituperative, `intense ill-temper'
vitriolic, vindictive,
vicious

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@Francis,

Well that's great.

This one's my favourite:

Quote:

-ump hump, rump, bump, `heavy masses'
crump, lump, stump

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