Baffled by the History of Bamboozle
Hello,
I discovered this morning that I’ve never explored the history of the word bamboozle. Challenge accepted, I thought to myself, perhaps somewhat prematurely.
Bamboozle is one of my favourite words both for its meaning and how fun it is to say. Let’s be honest here, it’s almost as much fun to say bamboozle as it is to bamboozle somebody, try and embed it in your conversation today for the sheer joy of it.
To bamboozle somebody is to deceive or trick them, to baffle and confuse them. Other terms would include hoax, fool, bewilder, and dupe. Naturally Wordfoolery approves of such foolishness. It’s very appropriate that the word history of bamboozle is bamboozling.
How long have we humans been bamboozling each other? Probably from the dawn of time but the word entered the English language in the early 1700s, originally as slang. Officially its origins are listed as unknown, a regular thing with slang words, but of course that doesn’t stop word enthusiasts from attempting to find some plausible roots.
Scottish origins are suggested thanks to the word bombaze (confound or perplex). French has embabouiner (to make a fool, or baboon, of somebody). Italian has bambolo (a baby) which may be extended to the idea of an old foolish person although that appears to be a stretch in my opinion.
Dictionary.com expands upon these themes, while admitting that the origin is unknown. They note that Dean Jonathan Swift disliked the word as being “low language” and hoped it would pass from use. Swift was wrong, but then so were Dictionary.com as they list him as British (he was born in Dublin and hence is Irish, albeit Anglo-Irish due to the time period of his life).
There’s an assumption that because bamboozling is deception the word must have come from the criminal underworld. This is possible, although bamboozling happens elsewhere too in my experience. Some link the term to bombazine fabric, often dyed black and used by widows in their mourning dress, but that’s probably thanks to the similarity in spelling rather than any proof.
In the 1800s the word bamboozle became a slang term for drunk when used on college campuses. There’s a rich world of words for being tipsy and bamboozle is a good entry in that list.
By 1876 Bamboozle was a board game created by Milton Bradley, it had the first ever folding game board. There have been a few since then with the same name so gamers must love being bamboozled. The Bamboozle is also a music festival in New Jersey apparently.
Bamboozle yielded word variants which sadly haven’t lasted. You could be a bamboozler, be plagued with bamboozlement, and in 1919 if you disabused somebody of their puzzlement and confusion you were de-bamboozling them.
To conclude, the origins of bamboozle are bamboozling. We have to settle for “origin unknown” in this case.
Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace
