Word of the day 17th July 2021
bombinate
[ˈbämbəˌnāt]
VERB
buzz; hum.
"her head had become a bombinating vacuum"
Origin
late 19th century: from medieval Latin bombinare, bombinat- ‘buzz’, from Latin bombus ‘humming’ (see bomb)
Did you know?
Bombinate sounds like it should be the province of bombastic blowhards who bound up and bombard you with droning blather at parties-and it is. The word derives from the Greek word bombos, a term that probably originated as an imitation of a deep, hollow sound (the kind we would likely refer to as "booming" nowadays). Latin speakers rendered the original Greek form as "bombus," and that root gave forth a veritable din of raucous English offspring, including not only "bombinate," but also "bomb," "bombard," and "bound" ("to leap"). However, Latin bombus is not a direct ancestor of "bombastic," which traces to "bombyx," a Greek name for the silkworm.
First Known Use of bombinate
1880, in the meaning defined above
History and Etymology for bombinate
borrowed from Medieval Latin bombinātus, past participle of bombināre, word of uncertain meaning formed from the base of Latin bombīre or bombilāre "to buzz, hum" (in New Latin taken to be synonymous with these words), derivatives of bombus "buzzing, humming," borrowed from Greek bómbos — more at BOMB entry 1
NOTE: Latin bombināre has had a shadowy existence from the time of Martianus Capella (5th century c.e.), who uses the agent derivative bombinātor in his De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. The 11th century lexicographer Papias glosses bombināre as conuiciari ("to utter abuse against, scold, revile"), or at least Papias is thus recorded in an early printed edition (Venice, 1485), which was picked up in Du Cange's dictionary of post-classical Latin, Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis. An oft-quoted occurrence is in the imaginary book title Quaestio subtilissima, utrum Chimaera in vacuo bombinans possit comedere secundas intentiones ("A subtle question, whether a Chimera buzzing in a vacuum can devour secondary intentions"), part of a mock library in François Rabelais's Pantagruel (the first volume, printed ca. 1532, of the Gargantua and Pantagruel novels); the translation of bombinans is conventional, but Rabelais' meaning is far from certain.
Examples of the use from the WEB
Asa Hornblow in the other room bombinating his chums about the Red Sox.
The New Yorker
He was accused of "bombinating in a vacuum" and, by H. G. Wells, of laboring like a hippopotamus trying to pick up a pea.
The New Yorker
In addition, he is still trying to discover the whereabouts of Hangfire, The Bombinating Beast and Ellington Feint.
The Guardian
At the start of this book, the main protagonist, young Lemony Snicket, is still trying to defeat the dastardly villain Hangfire; trying to save the wrongly accused Dashiell Qwerty; and also trying to get his hands on the statue of the Bombinating Beast before it falls into the villain's hands.
The Guardian