bungle

Etymology

The origin is obscure.^[2][3][4] The OED takes the verb as apparently imitative or expressive, comparing bumble, brangle and boggle,^[5] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford agree, Hoad pointing to a synonym of the same period, bumble.^[6][7] Skeat, also calling it imitative, compared the Swedish dialect word bangla (“to work ineffectually”) and Old Swedish bunga (“to strike”),^[8][5] and others build a Scandinavian origin on these: Barnhart thinks it a probable borrowing,^[9] the American Heritage Dictionary, Collins and Merriam-Webster only a possible one,^[10][11][12] and Klein and Partridge favour it.^[13][14] Partridge wonders whether it is a blend, with the sense chiefly from the Swedish word.^[14] Klein and Etymonline connect these forms with German Bengel (“cudgel; rude fellow”),^[13][2] and Merriam-Webster with bang.^[12] Weekley suggested a combination of boggle and bumble,^[15] as Etymonline also allows.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To do or make something clumsily: 1530, in John Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement.^[5][9][12] Etymonline and Dictionary.com put the word in the 1520s,^[2][3] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English in the mid 16th century.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb first took an object, often with up or out, meaning simply to make something unskilfully, and it now usually means to spoil a thing by poor workmanship.^[5] The agent noun bungler was in use by 1533, in the writings of Thomas More,^[9] and the intransitive "to blunder, act clumsily" by 1549.^[5] The noun followed in 1656, in Henry More.^[5][9] Johnson (1755) gives it as "a botch; an awkwardness; an inaccuracy; a clumsy performance", and the verb as "to botch; to manage clumsily; to conduct awkwardly".^[16]

Timeline

• 1530 – verb, transitive, to do or make clumsily.^[5][9][12]
• 1533 – bungler, in Thomas More.^[9]
• 1549 – verb, intransitive, to work or act clumsily; to blunder.^[5]
• 1656 – noun, a clumsy piece of work, a botch.^[5][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To carry out or handle something badly, spoiling it through clumsiness or incompetence; to botch: The clerks bungled the handover of the files.^[11][12][5]
2. To work or act in a clumsy, awkward way; to blunder.^[12][5]

Noun

1. A clumsy or unsuccessful piece of work; a botch or mistake: an administrative bungle.^[11][12][5]

Word family

• bungler
• bunglingly
• bunglesome

Related words

• bumble
• boggle
• bang

Usage notes

In Shetland, bungle was recorded in the English Dialect Dictionary as a clod or other hard object used as a missile, and as a verb meaning to throw a turf at someone.^[17]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)