Flummox
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:58 pm
I'm at a loss as to how the word of the day sometimes doesn't make it to the Agora. Here is today's:
• flummox •
Pronunciation: flê-mêks • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: To confuse, befuddle, addle to the point of frustration.
Notes: The adjective from today's word, flummocky "confused, befuddled", like the etymology (see History below) suggest that we are spelling it all wrong. These clues suggest that it should be spelled flummocks; however, please don't spell it that way until we all agree on it.
In Play: Life today is getting so complicated, people find themselves flummoxed more and more frequently: "When Steve Adore asked Alga Witham to marry him, he was flummoxed by her response that she would if he would sign a prenuptial agreement giving her all his money in case of divorce." As work becomes more complicated, opportunities for today's Good Word multiply: "The responsibilities of his new job were so far above Newton's head that he was flummoxed at the outset and lasted only a month in the new position."
Word History: Flummox comes to us from the dialectal recesses of Merry Old and reached London around the 1830s. Dickens wrote in the Pickwick Papers (1837) "He'll be what the Italians call reg'larly flummoxed." Well, what the Dickens was Dickens thinking? He must have been flummoxed by the origin of the word—it certainly didn't come from Italian. According to the OED, it is probably of dialectal origin, coming from flummocks "to maul, mangle," flummock "slovenly person," or flummock "to make untidy, to confuse, bewilder". How it got into the dialects of UK English, however, still has us all flummoxed. (We are so happy that Susan Lister was not flummoxed by what to do with this word and sent it directly to us to share with you today.)
