garble

Pronounced: GAR-bull, verb

Notes: This word has a second meaning that I didn’t know

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Yesterday’s word

The word homonymous means

• ambiguous
• having the same designation
• of, relating to, or being homonyms

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

The third definition above is the one I knew. Some background: a homophone describes words of different meanings that sound the same (but may not be spelled the same). Examples: bark (the sound a dog makes or the outside of a tree) and sea & see. A homograph are words of different meanings that are spelled the same (but may not sound the same). Examples: bark (as above) and bass (the fish rhymes with “class”; the singing part rhymes with “ace”. A homonym are words of different meanings that are either pronounced the same or spelled the same (or both). All our examples would be homonyms. Thus, the third (and latest) definition. The first definition was earliest, and originally meant a word with multiple meanings. An example of the second meaning is “Hawaii” – it can refer to the state or to one of the islands in the Hawaiian islands. The word comes from Greek homo- (same) and onyma (name).