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Waitaminute ... if "discombobulate" is in the dictionary, why aren't "combobulate" and "recombobulate"? (I only checked http://www.m-w.com -- I need to go hunt down the URL of the online OED and see whether it's in there.

Remember that rash-curing ritual I confused a bunch of people with a few weeks ago? I'm happy to say that it worked as expected. Perrine still kneads my ribs and my upper arm, but now without poking me and causing pain. She's still got enough claw to hurt me if she wanted to, but not so much that she keeps doing so by accident. She didn't struggle while her claws were being clipped, but she did emit pitiful, frightened-sounding cries.

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There are 14 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I need to go hunt down the URL of the online OED and see whether it's in there.

It's not. :>

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Amusingly, both words show up on Google. "Recombobulate" in particular seems to be working its way into slang usage.

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It's obviously a "back formation", but it makes so much sense, and is so useful, that I'm not surprised others are using it.

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i checked my OED (compact ed., 1971). "discombobulate" isn't even in there, much less "combobulate." a sec, i will check a couple of my other dictionaries to see if i can find an etymology.... (hey, do you still have that etymological dictionary i gave you 20-odd years ago?)

OK. discombobulate is also not in Everybody's Dictionary For Every Day Use, 3rd ed. (1914); the New Universities Dictionary, 1st ed. (1922) or New ed. (1927); the Webster's New Handy Pocket Dictionary, Concise ed. (1935); the Geographical Webster's Revised Home and Office Dictionary, 1st ed. (1937); the New Century Dictionary, 4th(?) ed. (1944); Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1957); or the Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, Concise ed. (1960). even John Ciardi's "A Browser's Dictionary: A Compendium of Curious Expressions and Intriguing Facts" (1980) hasn't got it, alas, since that would certainly contain any etymology that might exist. (it does contain entries for "mollycoddle" and "codfish aristocracy," however, which for some reason reminds me of the Pat McCurdy lyric "You went to an ice cream social/With an ice cream socialist.")

it is in the Random House Dictionary, unabridged ed. (1966) and the Random House College Dictionary, revised ed. (1975), both of which offer the variants "discombobulated" and "discombobulating" and suggest it may be derived from "discompose" or "discomfort." the Oxford American Dictionary (1980) provides no etymology, nor does Webster's New Universal Unabridged, 2nd ed. (1983).

clearly, then, the word is a slang variant of similar-sounding words, and has no clear etymology per se. it must have come into use between 1960 and 1966, but i'm all out of dictionaries, so that's as far as i can take you.

thanks for the excuse to drag out the reference books -- i don't do that often enough!

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Ok, it's time to poke Michael Quinion about this!

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http://worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-dis1.htm

Or maybe he's covered it already. I know he takes criticism fairly well, if you'd like to argue.

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The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has "discombobulate (http://www.bartleby.com/61/72/D0257200.html)", but not much etymology for it. Like Quinion, it thinks it may be an "alteration of discompose."

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