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Kitten1929
LIF Adult
Member since 1/13 6040 total posts
Name:
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Super random grammar question
A bindle is the sack that a hobo carries on a stick. Is that the singular of bundle? A bundle meaning many things, and a bindle meaning one thing?
This has been a hotly debated question among my sisters.
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Posted 8/27/13 10:38 AM  |
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Bearcat
Love my little girls!!! <3
Member since 6/10 10818 total posts
Name:
E
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Re: Super random grammar question
What does google say? 
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| Posted 8/27/13 10:44 AM |
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SeaWolf14
*Crazy Cat Lady*
Member since 7/13 1324 total posts
Name:
Heather
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Re: Super random grammar question
I'm an English teacher and I'm at a loss for words right now 
My guess is that bindle & bundle had the same root word many many years ago and just evolved differently - I think they're two seperate words, a nd that one is not a plural of the other, etc.
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| Posted 8/27/13 10:47 AM |
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Kitten1929
LIF Adult
Member since 1/13 6040 total posts
Name:
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Super random grammar question
LOL I know, so random right? Google has not been helpful so I thought maybe asking here would get me answer!
Sea Wolf, that was kinda my guess too. Thanks!
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| Posted 8/27/13 10:54 AM |
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Bearcat
Love my little girls!!! <3
Member since 6/10 10818 total posts
Name:
E
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Re: Super random grammar question
Almighty google has failed? Shocked!
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| Posted 8/27/13 10:58 AM |
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klingklang77
kraftwerk!
Member since 7/06 11487 total posts
Name:
Völlig losgelöst
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Re: Super random grammar question
It seems the etymology is unknown for this.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bindle
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| Posted 8/27/13 11:06 AM |
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Kitten1929
LIF Adult
Member since 1/13 6040 total posts
Name:
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Re: Super random grammar question
Posted by Bearcat
Almighty google has failed? Shocked!
If anything, I learned that there's a whole Hobo language!
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| Posted 8/27/13 11:07 AM |
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JoesWife628
Our family is complete :)
Member since 8/08 3934 total posts
Name:
Me
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Super random grammar question
A bindle is carried by a bindlestiff, usually a sac containing a bedroll or the bindlestiff's possessions. I don't believe there is a connection to the word bundle.
Message edited 8/27/2013 11:20:52 AM.
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| Posted 8/27/13 11:20 AM |
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peanutbutter2
Carpe diem!
Member since 11/10 5287 total posts
Name:
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Re: Super random grammar question
This is what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say about it, and the OED is a very, very reliable source.
bindle, n.1
View as: Outline |Full entryQuotations: Show all |Hide all
Etymology: Compare Old English bindele a binding, a tying.
Sc.
‘The cord or rope that binds anything, whether made of hemp or of straw.’ Jamieson.
bindle, n.2
View as: Outline |Full entryQuotations: Show all |Hide all
Pronunciation: /'b?nd(?)l/
Etymology: Probably a corruption of bundle n., but compare bindle n.1
U.S. and Canadian slang.
a. A bundle containing clothes and possessions, esp. a bedding-roll carried by a tramp. Hence bindle-man n., bindle-stiff a tramp who carries such a bundle.
1900 ‘J. Flynt’ Notes Itinerant Policeman 167 Among the ‘Bindle Men’, ‘Mush Fakers’, and ‘Turnpikers’ of the middle West, the East, and Canada, there exists a crude system of marking ‘good’ houses.
1901 J. London Let. 6 Dec. (1966) 126 Wyckoff only knows the workingman, the stake-man, and the bindle-stiff.
1925 Forum Aug. 232 Carrying his ‘bindle roll’ or roll of blankets on his back, he is prepared to make his home wherever night finds him.
1925 Forum Aug. 235 Bindle stiff, a western hobo, who carries his blankets in a roll or bindle.
1927 Glasgow Herald 24 July 8 In his stride he took almost all the experiences that can befall bums, bindle stiffs.. and all other variously designated knights of the moonlight.
1937 J. Steinbeck Of Mice & Men 4 George unslung his bindle and dropped it gently on the bank.
1952 J. Steinbeck East of Eden vii. 46 Before he knew it he was a bindlestiff himself.
(Hide quotations)
b. Any package or bundle, spec. one containing narcotics (see quot. 1923).
1916 Lit. Digest 19 Aug. 425/1 A package is a ‘bindle’.
1922 E. F. Murphy Black Candle (1926) xi. 214 The pedlars would buy it [sc. morphine] in big amounts; would..dish it out in small packages. We would call these ‘decks’, but some people call them ‘bindles’.
1923 Dial. Notes 6 246 Bindle, a package containing either morphine or cocaine. ‘Give me a bindle of snow.’
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| Posted 8/27/13 1:15 PM |
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SeaWolf14
*Crazy Cat Lady*
Member since 7/13 1324 total posts
Name:
Heather
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Re: Super random grammar question
I'm probably going to start referring to my purse as my bindle. I hope it catches on.
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| Posted 8/27/13 1:23 PM |
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Kitten1929
LIF Adult
Member since 1/13 6040 total posts
Name:
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Re: Super random grammar question
Posted by SeaWolf
I'm probably going to start referring to my purse as my bindle. I hope it catches on.
That would make you a bindlestiff
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| Posted 8/27/13 5:19 PM |
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