[=a]sel. Wedgwood suggests its origin in the Italian bamboccio, a young babe, and metaphorically an old dotard or babyish gull; imbambolare, to blear or dim one's sight, also with flatteries and blandishments, to inveigle and make a fool of one. If a verb were made of bambocciolo in the same way as bambocciolare, it would have much the sense of bamboozle. A. E. Quekett (N. and Q., 5 S., xii., 488) throws a side-light upon this last theory by pointing out that in Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew, Katharina says, 'Belike you mean to make a puppet of me,' and Petruchio replies, 'Why true; he means to make a puppet of thee.' Comparing this passage with the rest of the scene it would seem that Petruchio's answer is not a mere repetition of Katharina's words, but contains a double entendre of some kind. He (Quekett) then hazards that perhaps she meant to say, 'Perhaps you mean to treat me as a doll without a will of its own,' while Petruchio appears to mean something very like. 'He wishes to bamboozle you.'
Be all this as it may, bamboozle first came into vogue during the early part of the last century; for in the Tatler No. 230 [1710], we read, 'The third refinement observable in the letter I send you consists in the choice of certain words invented by some pretty fellows, such as banter, bamboozle, country-put, and kidney, some of which are now struggling for the vogue, and others are in possession of it'!
So also with the derivatives; e.g., bamboozle (subs.); Bamboozled; bamboozlement; bamboozler; bamboozling.
1703. Cibber, She Would and She Would Not, II., i. (1736), 34. Sham proofs, that they propos'd to bamboozle me with. [m.]
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 31. But, says I, sir, I perceive this is to you all bamboozling.
1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. III., ch. vi. There are a sort of fellows that they call banterers and bamboozlers, that play such tricks; but it seems these fellows were in earnest!
1731. Coffey, Devil to Pay, Act i., Sc. 3. You juggler, you cheating, bamboozling villain!
1754. Foote, Knights, Act ii. You are tricked, imposed on, bamboozled!
1779. R. Cumberland, Wheel of Fortune, Act ii., Sc. 1. You know I love you, Emily, . . . and therefore you baffle and bamboozle and make a bumpkin of me.
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. ix. 'It's all a bam, ma'am—all a bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.'
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. xxxvi. 'One does not like to be bamboozled out of one's right of election, by a smooth-tongued fellow, who sends one to the devil the moment the election is over.'
1886. Sat. Review, No. 1587, p. 423. The public is a great bamboozable body.
(Nautical).—To decoy the enemy by hoisting false colours—merely an extension of the popular sense.
English Synonyms. 'To throw dust in the eyes'; 'to use the pepper-box'; 'to gild the pill'; 'to throw a tub to a whale'; 'to make believe the moon is made of cream cheese'; 'to jockey'; 'to stick'; 'to bilk'; 'to do'; 'to best'; 'to do brown'; 'to bounce'; 'to take in'; 'to kid'; 'to gammon.'
French Synonyms. Une monteuse de coups (a woman who bamboozles her lovers); monter des couleurs (popular: 'to de-
