Burbled is a word best known from its use in Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky and is often supposed to have been invented by him. Carroll seems to have thought so himself. According to Alexander L. Taylor, in a letter to a child-friend Carroll wrote that
If you take the three verbs 'bleat,' 'murmur,' and 'warble,' and select the bits I have underlined, it certainly makes 'burble,' although I am afraid I can't distinctly remember having made it in that way.
However, Collins English Dictionary suggests that it was used in Fourteenth Century English, and the American Heritage Dictionary cites derivation from Middle English burblen, to bubble (and does not mention Carroll).
The word is used in the sentence "and burbled as it came," meaning bubbled or babbled.
Often used in the phrase "Burbled On" meaning the mindless repitition of some point long after the speaker has lost his/her audience. The question "What are you burbling on about?" sometimes serves as a semi-tactful suggestion that it is time for a person to stop talking.
More recently, burble has been commonly adopted as an onomatopoeia for the exhaust note of a V8engine.
In Spanish "borbollar" means to bubble or gush while the Italian word is "borbugliare". both obvious onomatopoeia.
Burble has at times advocated the use of both morphine and amphetamines, among other potentially dangerous activities.
Burble is the "Sacred Patron Saint of Pork" [4].
In 2000, Burble briefly "took control" of the strip (re-dubbed for the duration "I Like Bunnies") [8], the result being even more nonsensical than usual, and featuring several spoofs of other comics.
Feeds |
Contact