different between fankle vs fangle

English

Etymology

From Scots fankle, (compare English fangle), equivalent to fank (“coil, noose, vang”) +? -le (frequentative suffix). Doublet of fangle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæ?k?l/
• Rhymes: -æ?k?l

Verb

fankle (third-person singular simple present fankles, present participle fankling, simple past and past participle fankled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To tangle or entangle.

Noun

fankle (plural fankles)

1. A tangled condition.
   • 1954, The Nautical Magazine (volumes 171-172, page 31)

     But sometimes they didn't go the way they should - and jammed, and each one behind it started to jam too, and I had to work like a madman to catch up, before the anchor-chain fouled into a fankle […]

Scots

Noun

fankle (plural fankles)

1. A tangle of rope, string, wool etc

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæ?.??l/
• Rhymes: -æ???l

Etymology 1

From Middle English fangelen (verb), from fangel (“inclined to take”, adjective), from Old English *fangol, *fangel (“inclined to take”), from f?n (“to take, seize”). Compare Old English andfangol (“undertaker, contractor”), Old English underfangelnes (“undertaking, hospitality”), Middle English fangen (“to take, seize, catch”), German fangen (“to catch”). More at fang, onfang.

Verb

fangle (third-person singular simple present fangles, present participle fangling, simple past and past participle fangled)

1. (obsolete or dialectal) To fashion, manufacture, invent, or create.
   • 1641, John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy^[1]:

     […] not hereby to control and new fangle the Scripture, God forbid, but to mark how corruption and apostasy crept in by degrees, and to gather up wherever we find the remaining sparks of original truth, […]

2. (obsolete or dialectal) To trim showily; entangle; hang about.
3. (obsolete or dialectal) To waste time; trifle.

Usage notes

Although obsolete in general English, the verb is still occasionally used in some regions, and is retained in the expression newfangled.

Derived terms

• fangleness
• newfangle
• newfangled

Etymology 2

Back formation from newfangled (adjective) as if new + fangle (noun). See newfangle.

Noun

fangle (plural fangles)

1. (obsolete) A prop; a taking up; a new thing.
2. Something newly fashioned; a novelty, a new fancy.
3. A foolish innovation; a gewgaw; a trifling ornament.
4. A conceit; whim.

Anagrams

• flange