Tomboy

A romping girl, formerly used for a harlot. (Saxon, tumbere, a dancer or romper; Danish, tumle, “to tumble about;” French, tomber; Spanish, tumbar; our tumble.) The word may either be tumbe-boy (one who romps like a boy), or a tumber (one who romps), the word boy being a corruption.

“A lady

So fair … to be partnerʹa

With tomboys.”

Shakespeare Cymbeline, i. 6

Halliwell gives the following quotation:—

“Herodias doughter that was a tumb-estre and tumblede before [the king] and other grete lordes of the conré, he granted to geve hure whatevere she would bydde.”

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.