garboil

[prettygoodword]

garboil (GAHR-boyl) - n., a confused disordered state, turmoil, uproar.


Many dictionaries mark this as archaic -- but none yet as obsolete, possibly because Shakespeare used it, and that has put a lot of words on continued life support. In use since 1548, adopted from Middle French garbouil, from Old French, from Old Italian garbuglio, possibly from Latin bullīre, to boil -- so think of a roiling boiling situation.

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Interesting that words like garble, argle-bargle, and now this sound so similar yet apparently do not have a common pathway.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Yes! I wonder sometimes (without the expertise to research it well) roughly when vowel length ceased being phonemic. Though we still have schwa-productivity and its implicit reliance upon vowel length, most of us (incl. me) aren't conscious of it now unless we really slow down and ponder it....