wibbeln

German

Alternative forms

  • wiebeln (archaic)

Etymology

15th century. Eventually related with weben (to weave). The standard dictionaries prefer a derivation directly from this verb, in the sense of “to muddle, jumble, swarm” (of a crowd). Alternatively perhaps from the related, now obsolete noun Wiebel (beetle), from the swift and somewhat uncontrolled-looking movements of the legs. Compare also the unrelated but semantically and phonetically close words hibbeln, wimmeln, wippe(l)n, and wirbeln.

Verb

wibbeln (third-person singular simple present wibbelt, past tense wibbelt, past participle gewibbelt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (of people or animals) to move in a swift or uncontrolled (but not aggressive) way: to whirl, to twirl, to thrash, to scramble, to jumble, to swarm, etc.

Conjugation

Derived terms

  • herumwibbeln
  • wibbelig
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