wibbeln

German

Alternative forms

• wiebeln (archaic)

Etymology

15th century. Eventually related with weben (“to weave”). The standard dictionaries prefer a derivation directly from this verb, in the sense of “to muddle, jumble, swarm” (of a crowd). Alternatively perhaps from the related, now obsolete noun Wiebel (“beetle”), from the swift and somewhat uncontrolled-looking movements of the legs. Compare also the unrelated but semantically and phonetically close words hibbeln, wimmeln, wippe(l)n, and wirbeln.

Verb

1. (of people or animals) to move in a swift or uncontrolled (but not aggressive) way: to whirl, to twirl, to thrash, to scramble, to jumble, to swarm, etc.

Derived terms

• herumwibbeln
• wibbelig