Category: nerd for words

What is the origin of dumbledore?

Dumbledore is a British dialect word, a compound of dumble, which is onomatopoeic, occurring variously as bumble-, dumble-, humble-, and the noun dor (also dorr) “an insect that makes a buzzing noise as it flies.” For her Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling selected Dumbledore as the surname of the headmaster of Hogwarts because dumbledore is a dialect word for “bumblebee,” Albus Dumbledore loved music, and she imagined him walking around “humming to himself.” Dumbledore is recorded in English by the late 1700s.

How is dumbledore used?

The dumbledore proper is Emerson’s “burly dozing humblebee,” in American prose always a bumblebee.CHARLES P. G. SCOTT, “ENGLISH WORDS WHICH HAV GAIND OR LOST AN INITIAL CONSONANT BY ATTRACTION,” TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, VOL. 23, 1892

Any Humble-bee, no matter what species, is known as a Bumble-bee, a Foggie, a Dumbledore, or a Hummel-bee, according to the peculiar dialect of the locality ….JOHN GEORGE WOOD, HOMES WITHOUT HANDS, 1866