Brightrock

Every now and then, the little "quote of the day" that pops up in my Gmail "web clip" bar comes up with something that strikes a cord with me:

"There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles."

Stephen Covey

Like many people, I have a few quirky words that I use on a semi-regular basis.  One of them is “wembling,” as in “I’m wembling about whether to take that vacation,” meaning that I can’t quite make up my mind.  So, one of my word-smith friends pulled out the dictionary last night and disputed whether or not “wemble” is a word.  It wasn’t in his dictionary (never a copy of the OED when you need one, is there?), but I argued that he just didn’t have a big enough dictionary.

Sadly, it appears that I may have been wrong - I couldn’t find “wemble” in any of the freely-available online dictionaries, although it looks to me as though “wemble” may simply be a variation or corruption of ”wamble“ : to move unsteadily or with a weaving or rolling motion.  That sounds close enough to my meaning when I use wemble, and I was able to find at least one less-reputable source for my usage, so I’m not the only person who uses “wemble” in this wondrous growing language of ours. 

I really want a subscription to the OED for times like this!  I’m curious as to whether or not it recognizes “wemble” as a word or as a variant on “wamble.”  I’m *very close* to spending the $30/month for the OED online subscription.  Maybe the next time I’m feeling flush I’ll start a subscription. 

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