fimble

Meanings

Verb

• To fumble; do (anything) imperfectly or irresolutely.

Noun

• The male hemp plant.

Origin

• From a dialectal variant of fumble.
• From Middle Dutch femele, fimele, from fimelen (whence Dutch fijmelen, femelen), related to Middle Low German fimmelen, fimmeren, German fimmeln, West Frisian fimelje, English fimble. Alternatively, it is sometimes suggested that Middle Dutch femele is from French (chanvre) femelle, which was applied to the male hemp plant as it is smaller and was therefore believed to be female; this would parallel the old designation of the larger, female plant as carl.