fumfer
/ˈfəmfər/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "She fumfered around and refused to give a straight answer."
- "In school, Dr. Noah heard lectures on [Sigmund] Freud, [Carl] Jung and [Alfred] Adler. There wasn't much chance to try out their ideas in Monticello. Pragmatic medicine was practiced up there. To fumfer with the locals, any dreams, say what's in the mind, what do you see in the blots, would produce too many complications."
- ""Well," she continued, searching for the right words, "you're young, you're attractive, you're . . . no threat, if you know what I mean." Ron looked Liz straight in the eye. "I-don't-know-what-you-mean." / "Well, you know . . ." Liz fumfered. "You and Talbot.""
- "It was not what I had expected. I began to fumfer. "Perhaps I'm just here to buy a cookbook on Afghan cuisine.""
- "The interviewer began the dialogue by asking if my father would feel equal outrage had the blacklist targeted Nazis rather than Communists. Wrong-footed, Frank [Tarloff] fumfered some sort of response."
- "President Trump's tax-reform rollout came stumbling out of the gate this week. And much of the blame belongs to the clumsy, hacky salesmanship of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Chairman Gary Cohn, who fumfered his way through an awkward White House press briefing."
Etymology
Etymology tree Yiddish פֿאָנפֿען (fonfen) Proto-Germanic *-urōną Proto-West Germanic *-urōn Old English -erian Middle English -eren English -er English fumfer From Yiddish פֿאָנפֿען (fonfen, “to speak with a nasal twang, to mumble”) + English -er (frequentative suffix). First attested in 1954. Compare fumf.
Origin
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfəmfər/
- British English: /ˈfʌmfə/