"cumberbund"

[Chris Waigl]

On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:58:18 -0800, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
wrote:
>
> caught this (spoken) in an episode of Matlock.
>
> not in OED, NOAD2, or AHD4 as a variant of "cummerbund".  is in
> Merriam-Webster Online as a variant (without further comment).  the
> two spellings are listed as variants (with "cumberbund" first) in Q&A
> Times.
>
> but the Wiktionary just labels "cumberbund" as a misspelling of
> "cummerbund".  Brians doesn't mention it.
>
> plenty of sites treat "cumberbund" as the spelling.

This is a very interesting one - a good example for folk etymology in
German ((der) Kummer = sorrow, but that's not where it's derived from).

Should definitely go into the ECDB illico presto.

Chris

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