dumbledore

English

WOTD – 6 March 2008

Two views of a dumbledore (bumblebee)

Alternative forms

• dumble-dor
• drumbledore
• dumbledor

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/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

dumbledore (plural dumbledores)

1. (dialectal, archaic, dated) 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, American Philological Association, “Transactions of the American Philological Association”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), 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], chapter 4, in Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Tinsley Brothers, →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to V):

     “Miserable dumbledores!” / “Right, William, and so they be—miserable dumbledores!” said the choir with unanimity.

Translations

bumblebee — see bumblebee

beetle — see beetle

dandelion — see dandelion

blundering person

• Finnish: tomppeli (fi)

See also

• Dumbledorian
• Albus Dumbledore on Wikipedia.Wikipedia