What I want to know is if the bumble bee is called that because of the word bumble, or if the word bumble got that meaning because of the bee…ok, so a visit to wiktionary tells me the word bumble came first, then was applied to the bee.
EDIT: Wait, it may be the other way around. bumblebee came from humbul-be and merged with Middle English bombeln humble meaning to buzz. Man, I still don’t really even know.
came from humbul-be and merged with Middle English bombeln
As you’ve said, in both senses it’s related to the sound they make. “Bumble” on its own, in the sense of clumsy, meandering movement, is probably unrelated but I guess it’s plausible that it also had an influence on the mutation of “humbul” to “bumble” even if the latter was primarily about the noise.
What I want to know is if the bumble bee is called that because of the word bumble, or if the word bumble got that meaning because of the bee…ok, so a visit to wiktionary tells me the word bumble came first, then was applied to the bee.
EDIT: Wait, it may be the other way around. bumblebee came from humbul-be and merged with Middle English bombeln humble meaning to buzz. Man, I still don’t really even know.
Honey, wake up, a new question just dropped:
Which came first, the bumble or the bee?
Very good.
Imma bee honest, that was totally unintended haha
As you’ve said, in both senses it’s related to the sound they make. “Bumble” on its own, in the sense of clumsy, meandering movement, is probably unrelated but I guess it’s plausible that it also had an influence on the mutation of “humbul” to “bumble” even if the latter was primarily about the noise.