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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL5 source sections across 1 headword matching “Dab”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
dabEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English dabben (“to strike”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Old Icelandic dabba (“to tap, slap”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Compare also with Middle Dutch dabben (“to pinch, knead, fumble, dabble”) (Dutch dabben (“(of a horse) to stamp with the forelegs”)), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), possibly German tappen (“to fumble, grope”). The noun is from Middle English dabbe (“a strike, blow”), from the verb. Related to tap. Compare also drub, dub. African-American sense of “playful box” perhaps influenced by dap (“fistbump”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗dabEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English dabben (“to strike”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Old Icelandic dabba (“to tap, slap”), perhaps ultimately imitative. Compare also with Middle Dutch dabben (“to pinch, knead, fumble, dabble”) (Dutch dabben (“(of a horse) to stamp with the forelegs”)), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), possibly German tappen (“to fumble, grope”). The noun is from Middle English dabbe (“a strike, blow”), from the verb. Related to tap. Compare also drub, dub. African-American sense of “playful box” perhaps influenced by dap (“fistbump”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗dabEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Unknown. First use in print was in 1691, in The Athenian Mercury; it is also found in the Dictionary of the Canting Crew of 1698; see quotations for both. Originally used in the cant of criminals, and later in school slang. It may be a profound alteration of adept, likely from deliberate slangy usage thereof (rather than natural sound-change), which if true would give such earlier forms as *adep (or *dept) > *dep > *deb.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗dabEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
Late Middle English dabbe, of unknown origin; perhaps related to sense 1 (“to press against lightly”) as in "a soft mass dabbed down."
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗dabEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
Back slang for bad.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
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Chambers (1908)
1908- DabEnglish · e-37683-6775
Dab, dab, v.t. to strike gently with something soft or moist, to smear:—pr.p. dab′bing; pa.p. dabbed.—n. a gentle blow: a small lump of anything soft or moist: a species of flounder of light-brown colour, with small dark
Read the full source record → - DabEnglish · e-37683-6776
Dab, dab, n. an expert person.—n. Dab′ster (coll.). [Prob. a corr. of Adept.]
Read the full source record →
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MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
noundossier summary
dough
A kneadable flour mixture; inherited from Old English dāg through a Germanic formation on the Indo-European form-and-build root.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectivehistorical form
legible
Capable of being read or deciphered; from Late Latin legibilis and Latin legere “to read.”
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗022
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
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WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 1
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did legible begin as a word for general understandability?
The secure formation is literal reading: Late Latin legibilis from legere “to read.” Discernible and understandable are later or extended senses, not the morphological source.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 0
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BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
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FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
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