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jumble

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Etymology and origin of the English word jumble

Pronunciation

  • /ˈd͡ʒʌmbəl/[1]

jumble1 to mix in confusion

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1529 before 1529, Skelton, Speke Parrot

Etymology

The word for mixing in confusion is probably imitative or expressive.[2][3][4][5] The OED, which knows it only from the 16th century and without cognates, compares bumble, fumble, mumble, rumble and stumble,[2] Barnhart and Etymonline think it was perhaps coined on the pattern of such words,[6][7] and the Shorter Oxford sees an imitative base with the suffix -le.[3] Hoad sets it beside the partly synonymous late Middle English jumpere and jombre, all apparently formed on a symbolic base with a frequentative suffix;[8] Partridge suggests an easing of jompren,[9] and Weekley hears an echo of jump in it.[10] Dictionary.com proposes a blend of dialect joll, to bump, and tumble.[11] Barnhart keeps the Middle English jumbeled (“made double”) of about 1460 apart, as a form related to gemelled (“paired, doubled”).[6] The noun comes from the verb.[2][6][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move about in disorder, to flounder in confusion: before 1529, in Skelton's Speke Parrot.[2][6][5] Green's Dictionary of Slang dates the same poem 1521 and reads the passage as sexual.[12] Etymonline likewise dates the intransitive verb to the 1520s.[7]

Semantic evolution

The transitive sense, to mix up or muddle, follows in 1542.[2][6] From 1530 the verb could also mean to make a confused or rumbling noise, or to play an instrument noisily, a use the OED records until 1809.[2][8] It also served as a euphemism for having sex, from 1582 to the late 17th century.[2][7][12] Mental confusion is recorded from 1668, and shaking or jolting from 1568,[2] and in Scots and northern English dialect the verb went on meaning to jolt, shake or knock up against someone.[13] The noun appears in 1661, in J. Glanvill, for a confused mixture.[2][6] From 1674 it also meant a shock or jolting, later colloquially a ride in a carriage.[2] Johnson (1755) defines the noun as a confused mixture and a violent, confused agitation.[14] The British sense of articles for a jumble sale, and the phrase itself, are recorded from 1931.[2][7]

Timeline

  • before 1529 – to move about in disorder.[2][6][5]
  • 1530 – to make a confused or rumbling noise (obsolete by 1809).[2]
  • 1542 – to mix up in confusion; to muddle.[2][6]
  • 1568 – to shake up, to jolt.[2]
  • 1582 – to have sex (obsolete).[2][7]
  • 1661 – noun, a confused mixture.[2][6][5] Etymonline has the 1660s.[7]
  • 1668 – to put into mental confusion.[2]
  • 1674 – noun, a shock or jolting.[2]
  • 1748 – to travel with jolting.[2]
  • 1931 – articles for a jumble sale.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To mix things together in disorder, often with up: He jumbled the receipts into one drawer.[15][5][2][16]
  2. To muddle or confuse in the mind or memory: The dates got jumbled in her head.[15][2][16]
  3. To move in a confused mass: The crowd jumbled through the gate.[5][2]
  4. To travel with jolts, or to give a shaking to something.[5][2]
  5. (archaic) To make discordant sounds.[5][2]
  6. (obsolete, 1582–1693) To have sexual intercourse (with).[2][12]

Noun

  1. A confused mixture or medley; also, disorder: a jumble of old cables.[15][5][2]
  2. (British) Articles given for a jumble sale.[15][2]
  3. A shaking or jolting.[2]

Word family

  • jumblement
  • jumbler
  • jumblingly
  • unjumbled

jumble2 ring-shaped sweet cake

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1615

Etymology

The word for the sweet cake has an uncertain origin, and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate calls it unknown.[17][15] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as an alteration, probably influenced by jumble1, of earlier jumbal, probably itself an alteration of the obsolete gimbal in the sense of a finger ring.[5] The Shorter Oxford also calls jumbal perhaps a variant of gimbal,[3] and Weekley derived the cake, once made in rings, probably from Old French jumel (“twin”).[10] Etymonline thinks it probably unrelated to the verb.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small sweet cake or biscuit, often made as a ring or roll: 1615 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,[5] the 1610s in Etymonline,[7] and the early 17th century in the Shorter Oxford.[3]

Semantic evolution

Weekley's quotation "wreathed jumbals" shows the old ring shape.[10] The Shorter Oxford notes that in the United States it is now also a thin, crisp cake flavoured with lemon peel or almonds.[3] Wright's dialect dictionary records it in Yorkshire, Cheshire, Leicestershire, London, Surrey, Wiltshire and Somerset, and in America, in the West Riding as a small round sweet cake.[13]

Timeline

  • 1615 – a small sweet cake, usually ring-shaped.[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small, thin, sugared cake, usually shaped like a ring; also spelled jumbal.[5][15][3]

Usage notes

A further Jumble, a slang word for a white British person, is from a colloquial pronunciation of John Bull; it is recorded from 1956, in Colin MacInnes.[2][3][12]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ 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 m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  10. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b 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)
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  17. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
Cite this entry

“Jumble.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jumble. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

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