Fun & Fancy Words:
Discombobulated!
This Week’s Fun & Fancy Word Is:
The word discombobulated sounds like you feel when you’re in a state of discombobulation. If you’re confused, flustered, and in a tizzy, you’re discombobulated. And what you need… is to get recombobulated. Which is easier said than done. It’s a bit of a tongue-twister so it isn’t that easy to say, much less do.
Etymology:
Origin Of The Word Discombobulated
Discombobulated may seem like it’s derived from Latin, but the middle syllable bob is a dead giveaway that the word is only posing as Latin.[1] It’s an example of what is sometimes referred to as “Dog Latin.”[2] What, pray tell, is Dog Latin? It’s jargon, or a phrase that sounds like Latin but isn’t.
Multilingual wordplay like this was well known in Shakespeare’s day. And by the 18th century, it came to be known as Dog Latin.[3] During the 19th century, inventing fancy, humorous-sounding words was quite the fad. It is from this craze that the word discombobulated emerged.[4]
As noted above, the word discombobulated sounds like you feel when you’re in a state of discombobulation. That’s not surprising, because as lexicographer John Camden Hotten points out in his 1860 Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words:
Sound contributes many Slang words—a source that etymologists too frequently overlook.[5]
Consistent with Hotten’s observation, discombobulate started out as discomboberate. Which echoes the word bobbery, meaning confusion or noise.
This original iteration first appeared in the 1820s, in an article from the Georgia Patriot that appeared in a number of newspapers around the country. One relating how General Edmund P. Gaines disrupted a local militia’s plans to attack the Creek Indians. And how the militia leaders would “find their plans rather discomboberated.[6]
The -ulate ending we’re more familiar with shows up in 1839, in the noun form of the word… discombobulation. A New York magazine, The Spirit of the Times, reviewed an atrocious production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. The description of the climactic scene, in which Richard is slain by the Earl of Richmond, descended into farce:
In fighting with Richmond, he was particularly effective. Never Richard fought with such determined valor. After a prolonged collision with “gallant Harry,” he was about to fall, when a voice from the gallery shouted, “Don’t back out, Neddy!” and caused him to renew the battle with valor worthy of a better issue. Finally, Richmond was obliged to trundle him, neck and heels, to the earth, to the utter discombobulation of his wig. He died hard, and not until run through and through repeatedly.[7]
As also noted above, given that discombobulated means being confused and disrupted, recombobulation must mean the act of getting yourself back together. In a move intended to lighten the mood in a typically tense situation, Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport designated the area where travelers recompose themselves after passing through security screening as the “Recombobulation Area.” With very official looking signs and everything.[8]
Amusement with concocted words clearly didn’t end with the 19th century. We’re still having fun with them today. Just don’t let such Dog-Latin cause you to get all discombobulated.
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Endnotes:
[1] Zimmer, Ben. “Getting ‘Discombobulated’ on Lexicon Valley.” VisualThesaurus.com July 28, 2014.
[2] Treisman, Rachel. “No one likes being discombobulated. How did the feeling get such a fun name?” NPR.com Word of the week.
[3] “What’s the origin of pig Latin?” The Straight Dope. June 1, 2004.
[4] Treisman, Rachel. “No one likes being discombobulated. How did the feeling get such a fun name?” NPR.com Word of the week.
[5] Hotten, John Camden. A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words. London: John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly, 1860. Pg 56.
[6] Zimmer, Ben. Visualthesaurus.com July 28, 2014
[7] Zimmer, Ben. Visualthesaurus.com July 28, 2014
[8] Zimmer, Ben. Visualthesaurus.com July 28, 2014
Wild, Matt. “Mandatory Milwaukee: The ‘Recombobulation Area’ signs at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.” Milwaukee Record. February 21, 2022
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