shambles (n.)

"meat or fish market," early 15c., from schamil "table, stall for vending" (c. 1300), from Old English scamol, scomul "stool, footstool" (also figurative); "bench or stall in a market on which goods are exposed for sale, table for vending." Compare Old Saxon skamel "stool," Middle Dutch schamel, Old High German scamel, German schemel, Danish skammel "footstool." All these represent an early Proto-Germanic borrowing from Latin scamillus "low stool, a little bench," which is ultimately a diminutive of scamnum "stool, bench," from a PIE root *skmbh- "to prop up, support."

In English, the sense evolved from "place where meat is sold" to "slaughterhouse" (1540s), then figuratively "place of butchery" (1590s), and, generally, "confusion, mess" (1901, usually in plural).

also from early 15c.

Entries linking to shambles

footstool (n.)

also foot-stool, "stool, usually small and low, to rest the feet on while sitting," 1520s, from foot (n.) + stool. Earlier was fotsceomel, from Old English fotsceamel; for the second element of which see shambles. Figurative sense of "one who is the abject thrall of another" is from 1530s.

shamble (v.)

"to walk with a shuffling gait, walk awkwardly and unsteadily," 1680s (implied in shambling), from an adjective meaning "ungainly, awkward" (c. 1600), from shamble (n.) "table, bench" (see shambles), perhaps on the notion of the splayed legs of bench, or the way a worker sits astride it. Compare French bancal "bow-legged, wobbly" (of furniture), properly "bench-legged," from banc "bench." The noun meaning "a shambling gait" is from 1828. Related: Shambled.

shambolic (adj.)

"chaotic, disorderly," 1961, apparently from shamble in the sense "disorder" (see shambles), perhaps on model of symbolic.

Trends of shambles

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to Explore

drag

late 14c., draggen, "to draw a grapnel along the bottom of a river, lake, etc., in search of something;" late 15c., "to draw away by force, pull haul," from Old Norse draga, or a dialectal variant of Old English dragan "to draw," both from Proto-Germanic *draganan "to draw, pull,

walk

"travel on foot," c. 1200, a merger of two verbs, 1. Old English wealcan "to toss, roll, move round" (past tense weolc, past participle wealcen), and 2. wealcian "to roll up, curl," from Proto-Germanic *welk- (source also of Old Norse valka "to drag about," Danish valke "to full"

edifice

late 14c., from Old French edifice "building" (12c.), from Latin aedificium "building," from aedificare "to erect a building," from aedis, variant of aedes "temple, sanctuary," usually a single edifice without partitions, also, in the plural, "dwelling house, building," originall

scuff

1768, "to walk (through or over something) without raising the feet," originally Scottish, a word "Of uncertain and possibly mixed origin" [OED], probably from a Scandinavian source related to Old Norse skufa, skyfa "to shove, push aside" (from Proto-Germanic *skubanan, from PIE

building

c. 1300, "a structure;" late 14c., "act or process of constructing;" verbal noun from build (v.). Building-block is attested from 1846 as "one of a set of children's play blocks;" 1849 as "temporary support on which a ship's keel rests while the ship is being constructed;" 1856 a

shuffle

1530s, "put together hastily," probably from Middle English shovelen "to move with dragging feet," itself probably a frequentative form of shoven (see shove (v.) and compare scuffle). Or perhaps from Low German schuffeln "to walk clumsily, deal dishonestly." In reference to playi

disorder

late 15c. (Caxton), "destroy or derange the order of, throw into confusion," from dis- "not" (see dis-) + order (v.). Replaced earlier disordeine (mid-14c.), from Old French desordainer, from Medieval Latin disordinare "throw into disorder," from Latin dis- + ordinare "to order,

cult

1610s, "worship, homage" (a sense now obsolete); 1670s, "a particular form or system of worship;" from French culte (17c.), from Latin cultus "care, labor; cultivation, culture; worship, reverence," originally "tended, cultivated," past participle of colere "to till" (see colony)

plagiarism

"the purloining or wrongful appropriation of another's ideas, writing, artistic designs, etc., and giving these forth as one's own" [Century Dictionary], 1620s, from -ism + plagiary (n.) "plagiarist, literary thief" (c. 1600), from Latin plagiarius "kidnapper, seducer, plunderer,

volume

late 14c., "roll of parchment containing writing; a bound book," from Old French volume "scroll, book; work, volume; girth, size" (13c.) and directly from Latin volumen (genitive voluminis) "roll (of a manuscript); coil, wreath," literally "that which is rolled," from volvere "to

Share shambles

‘cite’

Page URL:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/shambles

HTML Link:

<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/shambles">Etymology of shambles by etymonline</a>

APA style:

Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of shambles. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved $(datetime), from https://www.etymonline.com/word/shambles

Chicago style:

Harper Douglas, “Etymology of shambles,” Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed $(datetime), https://www.etymonline.com/word/shambles.

MLA style:

Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of shambles.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/shambles. Accessed $(datetimeMla).

IEEE style:

D. Harper. “Etymology of shambles.” Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/shambles (accessed $(datetime)).

updated on August 04, 2022

Remove ads >

Dictionary entries near shambles

shalom

sham

shaman

shamanism

shamble

shambles

shambolic

shame

shamefaced

shamefast

shameful