† ˈmammer, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 5 memere, mamere, 6 mamber, mam(m)or, 6– mammer.
[An imitative formation (with frequentative suffix -er); cf. mamble, mumble, stammer.
It is doubtful whether this has any connexion with the OE. mamrian occurring in Ps. (Thorpe) lxiii. 5 (þær hi mamriað man & unriht = Vulg. scrutantes scrutinio), app. meaning ‘to devise, think of’, or with the mamor n., found as a gloss on sopor sleep.]
intr. a. To stammer, mutter. b. To vacillate, waver, be undecided.
| 14.. Anturs of Arth. 110 (Douce MS.) Hit marred, hit memered, hit mused for madde. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 668/26 Mutulare, to mamere [cf. Ags. Glosses ibid. 447/30 ‘Mutulat, stommeteð’ i.e. stammers]. a 1555 Bradford in Coverdale Lett. Mart. (1564) 313 Tyl he [sc. Adam] forsoke god..began to mamber of the truth, & to frame hymselfe outwardly to doe that which his conscience reproued inwardly..til then, I say, god did not departe and leaue him to himselfe. 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. ii. iii. G v b, Yea when she daygnes to sende for hym, then mammeryng he dothe doute, What should I go? 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 70, I wonder in my Soule What you would aske me, that I should deny, Or stand so mam'ring on? 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. vii. 254 Would you haue them to mammer, as Elias said merrily once of Baal, Perhaps he is gone to warre,..so perhaps he is gone to Purgatory? 1842 Akerman Wiltsh. Gloss., Mammered, perplexed. 1861 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. III. vii. 127, I be that mad wi' myself, and mammered, and down, I be ready to hang myself. 1883 W. H. Cope Gloss. Hampshire Words 56 Mammered, perplexed. 1888 B. Lowsley Gloss. Berks. Words 108 Mammered, amazed, confused, puzzled. |