maunder

English

WOTD – 24 October 2006

Etymology

From earlier maund (“to beg”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔːndə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔndɚ/

• Audio (US)

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Verb

maunder (third-person singular simple present maunders, present participle maundering, simple past and past participle maundered)

1. To speak in a disorganized or desultory manner; to babble or prattle.
   • 1826, [Walter Scott], Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC:

     He was ever maundering by the how that he met a party of scarlet devils.

   • 1834, Maria Edgeworth, Helen: v. 3, ch. V:

     "Not so fast, Lady Cecilia; not yet;" and now Louisa went on with a medical maundering. "As to low spirits, my dear Cecilia, I must say I agree with Sir Sib Pennyfeather, who tells me it is not mere common low spirits […] "

   • 1871, Henry James, “ch. IV”, in A Passionate Pilgrim:

     On the following day my friend's exhaustion had become so great that I began to fear his intelligence altogether broken up. But toward evening he briefly rallied, to maunder about many things, confounding in a sinister jumble the memories of the past weeks and those of bygone years.

   • 1889, Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, ch. XVII:

     What are you maundering about? He's going out from here a free man and whole—he's not going to die.

   • 2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Whether Edwina [mother of Tennessee Williams] had sufficient self-awareness to recognize her own maundering about (say) "seventeen! – gentleman callers!" is doubtful, but she was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.

2. To wander or walk aimlessly.
   • 1959 April 24, Walt Kelly, Pogo, comic strip, →ISBN, page 35:

     [Deacon Mushrat to Pogo:] The Machiavellian barratry of a pettifogging public has maundered into do-nothingism.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To beg; to whine like a beggar.

Synonyms

• (speak in a disorganized manner): babble, prattle, ramble
• (walk aimlessly): ramble, wander

Related terms

• maunderer
• maundering

Translations

speak in a disorganized manner

• Bulgarian: говоря несвързано (govorja nesvǎrzano)
• Polish: bajtlować (pl) impf, zbajtlować pf
• Spanish: divagar (es)

walk aimlessly

• Bulgarian: движа се безцелно (dviža se bezcelno)
• Spanish: holgazanear (es)

References

• Samuel Johnson (1827) A Dictionary of the English Language: “2. To wander about in a thoughtful manner; to talk confusedly; [perhaps from the Gael. mandagh, a stutterer.] A northern word. It is written both maunder and mander.”

Noun

maunder (plural maunders)

1. (obsolete) A beggar.

Anagrams

• Mundare, duramen, manured, unarmed, undream