Word two! It’s blunderbuss, which someone had mentioned curiosity about ages ago (sorry! I don’t remember who!).
Blunderbuss has two meanings, one, an insensitive “blundering” person, and two, a musket that can fire at close range. Um, okay. It showed up in the mid seventeenth century from the Dutch donderbus, a mix of donder, thunder, and bus, gun. So a blunderbuss is a thunder gun, first literally and then figuratively. Apparently people started pronouncing donderbus wrong because donder sounded kind of like blunder, which has a totally separate etymology. But weirdly enough, donder survives in English as dunderhead. Well, probably. There are no better guesses as to where “dunder” comes from.
Etymology!
Sources
Great word to hear and to say. I'll be sure to use it in my next story. It suits one of characters well. Have a lovely day.
ReplyDeleteSo how did it go from gun to head in dunderhead?
ReplyDeleteAnd where's the stick figure?
Really interesting! Rolls nicely on the tongue--blunderbuss..
ReplyDeleteI knew of the gun meaning, but I'd never heard it used to describe a person - shows what I know :). It always makes me think of a clumsy gun, because of the blunder part, so donder makes much more sense ::g::
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
I've never heard the word before. But I seem to recall donder being part of a Dutch insult sort of word- donderstein or donderstain, however it's spelled.
ReplyDeleteI love that word. It's fun to say. Like Nicola, I want to use it in a story sometime.
ReplyDeleteI've called people blunderbuss and donderhead at one time or another. They're good words.
ReplyDeleteSusan Says
It's so interesting, etymology! And how unsure we are, often, of the real roots of words. Great theme. ~Liz http://www.lizbrownleepoet.com
ReplyDeleteI want to say I've heard the word blunderbuss before, but I don't think I have. Maybe because it's such an interesting word I want to say I'm familiar.
ReplyDelete~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
Interesting word, although scary if both definitions are used together: an insensitive “blundering” person with a musket that can fire at close range . . .
ReplyDeleteThunderhead! I'm totally going to use that!
ReplyDeleteFor... something.
I love the word blunderbuss. I almost want to write an historical just so I can use words like that.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. Sort of.
ReplyDeleteGreat words so far! I can't wait to see what you have in store for the rest of the month.
ReplyDelete