different between rabble vs brabble

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æb?l/
• Rhymes: -æb?l

Etymology 1

First attested since 1300s, from Middle English rablen (“to ramble; rave; speak in a confused manner”), cognate with Middle Dutch rabbelen (“to talk; chatter; trifle”), Low German rabbeln, robbeln (“to chatter; prattle”).

Alternative forms

• ravel

Verb

rabble (third-person singular simple present rabbles, present participle rabbling, simple past and past participle rabbled)

1. (intransitive) To speak in a confused manner; talk incoherently; utter nonsense
2. (transitive) To speak confusedly or incoherently; gabble or chatter out

Etymology 2

From Middle English rabel, probably from the verb (see above).

Noun

rabble (plural rabbles)

1. (obsolete) A bewildered or meaningless string of words.
2. (obsolete) A pack of animals; or any confused collection of things.
3. A mob; a disorderly crowd. [from late 14^th c.]
4. (derogatory) The mass of common people; the lowest class of populace. [from 1550s]

   Synonyms: plebs, riffraff; see also Thesaurus:commonalty

Derived terms

• rabble rouser
• rabblesome

Translations

Etymology 3

Old French roable (modern French râble), from Latin rutabulum (“a poker”).

Noun

rabble (plural rabbles)

1. An iron bar used in puddling.

Verb

rabble (third-person singular simple present rabbles, present participle rabbling, simple past and past participle rabbled)

1. (transitive) To stir with a rabble.

Derived terms

• rabbler

Further reading

• rabble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• rabble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• rabble at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• barbel, barble

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch brabbelen (“to quarrel, jabber”). Akin to babble. Compare German brabbeln (“to talk confusedly”).

Verb

brabble (third-person singular simple present brabbles, present participle brabbling, simple past and past participle brabbled)

1. (dated) To clamour; to contest noisily.
   • 1598, John Stow, Survey of London, London: J.M. Dent, 1912, p. 362,^[1]

     Then next is the Clinke, a gaol or prison for the trespassers in those parts; namely, in old time, for such as should brabble, frey, or break the peace on the said bank, or in the brothel houses, they were by the inhabitants thereabout apprehended and committed to this gaol, where they were straitly imprisoned.

   • 1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 141,^[2]

     Brabbling curs never want sore ears.

   • 1883, Edward Maunde Thompson, Preface to Diary of Richard Cocks, cape-merchant in the English factory in Japan, 1615-1622, London: Hakluyt Society, p. xxxvi,^[3]

     And it was not only with the English that the Dutch sailors quarrelled. They were drunken and riotous and “brabbled” in the streets, till at last the long-suffering Japanese lost patience and seizing two of them summarily cut off their heads.

2. To babble (of a stream or other watercourse).
   • 1902, Mary Johnston, Audrey, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, Chapter 9, p. 121,^[4]

     Farther on, when they came to a miniature glen between the semblance of two hills, down which, in mockery of a torrent, brabbled a slim brown stream, MacLean stood still […]

   • 1921, Reginald Farrer, The Rainbow Bridge, London: E. Arnold & Co., Chapter 10, p. 181,^[5]

     Down in the middle, among mossy boulders, the beck brabbled through golden sheets of Draba […]

Noun

brabble (plural brabbles)

1. (dated) A brawl; a noisy contest; a wrangle.
   • 'c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene 1,^[6]

     This petty brabble will undo us all.

   • 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     What they, by this their journey to Versailles, do specially want? The twelve speakers reply, in few words inclusive of much: "Bread, and the end of these brabbles […] "

Derived terms

• brabbler

Anagrams

• babbler, blabber