dumbledore

English

WOTD – 6 March 2008
Two views of a dumbledore (bumblebee)

Alternative forms

Etymology

Compound of dumble (similar to bumble) + dor (a buzzing flying insect).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈdʌm.bəl.dɔː/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈdʌm.bəl.dɔːɹ/
  • (file)
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Noun

dumbledore (plural dumbledores)

  1. (dialectal) A bumblebee.
    • 1875 Charlotte M Yonge, The Daisy Chain:
      Those slopes of fresh turf, embroidered with every minute blossom of the moor — thyme, birdsfoot, eyebright, and dwarf purple thistle, buzzed and hummed over by busy, black-tailed, yellow-banded dumbledores.
    • 1899 Thomas Hardy, An August Midnight:
      A shaded lamp and a waving blind, / And the beat of a clock from a distant floor: / On this scene enter – winged, horned, and spined – / A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore
    • 1970 May 21, Evening Telegram, page 3:
      Now and then a dumbledore or ‘busy bee’ as they are called by some, propelled itself across our path, they being extremely large and heavy this year.
    • 1987 Seán Virgo, Selakhi, Exile Editions, Ltd., page 20:
      A dumbledore, lured from the plantation, lies on its back, leaping and churning upon Seth’s bright pages.
  2. (dialectal) A beetle, typically a cockchafer or dung beetle.
    • 1964 Transactions of the American Philological Association, American Philological Association, Ginn & Co., page 267:
      others may need to be informd that a blastnashun straddlebob is a dumbledore, that is to say, a polyonymous lamellicorn coleopter, cald also a dorbeetle, a dorbug, a maybeetle, a maybug, a cockchafer, a Melolontha vulgaris.
  3. (dialectal) A dandelion.
    • 1975 Peter J. Scott, Edible Fruits and Herbs of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Memorial University Oxen Pond Botanical Park, page 39:
      The Dandelion has a number of common names in Newfoundland. These include Dumbledore, Faceclock, and Piss-a-beds.
  4. (slang) A blundering person.
    • 1872 Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree, chapter 4:
      “Miserable dumbledores!” / “Right, William, and so they be—miserable dumbledores!” said the choir with unanimity.

Translations

See also

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