Browsing, as I sometimes do, through a poetry book I just came across this.

Some Favourite Words
by
Richard Edwards

Mugwump, chubby, dunk and whoa,
Swizzle, doom and snoop,
Flummox, lilt and afterglow,
Gruff, bamboozle, whoop
And nincompoop.

Wallow, jungle, lumber,sigh,
Oooze and zodiac,
Innuendo, lullaby,
Ramp and mope and quack
And paddywhack.

Moony, undone, lush and bole,
Inkling, tusk, guffaw,
Waspish, croon and cubby-hole,
Fern, fawn, dumbledore
And many more...

Now being the clever clogs that I am I know all but one of those but what, apart from being the headmaster of Hogwarts, is a "dumbledore" ?

Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

Read all about my travels around the world here.

From the OED On-line (1989):

dumbledore, dumble-dore

local.

A humble-bee or bumble-bee; also dial. a cockchafer.

Now what's a cockchafer? The OED says its a
"coleopterous insect or beetle (Melolontha vulgaris), well known in England and over Europe: it is a stout broad insect of comparatively large size and greyish chestnut colour; it comes forth from the chrysalis towards the end of May (hence called Maybug), and flies with a loud whirring sound. Both the perfect insect and the larva are very destructive to vegetation".

Tinman

There is more in Word Detective.

quote:

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Dear Word Detective: One of the characters in the Harry Potter series of kids' books is named Dumbledore. When I first came across it, I thought it was just the kind of made-up name that Dickens might have come up with. Lo and behold, the name cropped up in Thomas Hardy's "Under the Greenwood Tree" as a mild epithet. Hardy made it clear that no self-respecting person would want to be classed with the "miserable dumbledores," but he didn't come across with the exact meaning. Can you help?
[Answer] ...
Used figuratively, as Hardy did, "dumbledore" would likely mean a human bumblebee: a slow, perhaps not very bright person.

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"would likely mean"??? We can't stop there, can we?

Oh, but I have always liked nincompoop. According to Word Detective there is a controversy on on its derivation. My favorite version is that "nincompoop" might be a mutation of the Latin term "non compos mentis," meaning "not of sound mind." However, OED points out that this theory fails to explain earlier forms of the word ("nicompoop" and "nickumpoop") that bear considerably less resemblance to "non compos mentis", and OED concludes that it is merely a nonsense word. Still, I like it!
It rather reminds me of a new word I found that I love, "dunderwhelp"--detestable numbskull. The sound of those words just define them.

Dunderwhelp and Dumbledore. Sounds like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum!

Tinman

Shufitz, I tried to find more about "dumbledore" and found the following from onelook (citing the worthless word of the day site): dumbledore
1) [Brit] the bumblebee; "the most good-natured of God's Insects" -Southey
2) [Brit dial.] the dung-beetle

Tinman, I agree that "dumbledore" and "dunderwhelp" sound great together! What a wonderful poem this is, Bob. There are so many fun words here. Another favorite of mine is "bamboozle"--much like "hoodwink", a word we discussed on this board earlier.