balbutiate

English

Alternative forms

• balbucinate

Etymology

Latin balbutire, from balbus (“stammering”): compare French balbutier.

Verb

balbutiate (third-person singular simple present balbutiates, present participle balbutiating, simple past and past participle balbutiated)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To stammer.
   • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC:

     five times in foure and twenty houres praying (or rather balbutiating) orderly

References

• “balbutiate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.