shamble

[sham-buhl] Origin

sham·ble

1[sham-buhl]
noun
1.
shambles, (used with a singular or plural verb)
a.
a slaughterhouse.
b.
any place of carnage.
c.
any scene of destruction: to turn cities into shambles.
d.
any scene, place, or thing in disorder: Her desk is a shambles.
2.
British Dialect. a butcher's shop or stall.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English shamel, Old English sc(e)amel stool, table < Late Latin scamellum, Latin scamillum, diminutive of Latin scamnum bench; compare German Schemel

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Shamble is always a great word to know.
So is bezoar. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

sham·ble

2[sham-buhl] verb, sham·bled, sham·bling, noun
verb (used without object)
1.
to walk or go awkwardly; shuffle.
noun
2.
a shambling gait.

Origin:
1675–85; perhaps short for shamble-legs one that walks wide (i.e., as if straddling), reminiscent of the legs of a shamble1 (in earlier sense “butcher's table”)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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World English Dictionary
shamble (ˈʃæmbəl)
 
vb
1.  (intr) to walk or move along in an awkward or unsteady way
 
n
2.  an awkward or unsteady walk
 
[C17: from shamble (adj) ungainly, perhaps from the phrase shamble legs legs resembling those of a meat vendor's table; see shambles]
 
'shambling
 
adj, —n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

shamble
"to walk with a shuffling gait," 1681, from an adj. meaning "ungainly, awkward" (1607), 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. Cf. Fr. bancal "bow-legged, wobbly" (of furniture),
EXPAND
prop. "bench-legged," from banc "bench."
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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