Rambles

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Walks about in a leisurely or aimless way ; speaks or writes at length in a disorganized or unfocused manner
2. Moves around with no clear direction or purpose ; delivers speech or text that wanders without clear structure
3. Goes on foot in an irregular or wandering fashion ; expresses thoughts or ideas in a long-winded or confused style

Etymology: Walking with no fixed destination has a surprisingly noisy ancestry. The likeliest source is a Middle English verb, a frequentative formed from "roam", which in turn gave the sense of wandering about without purpose. The "-le" ending marks repeated or habitual action, so the word is a kind of "keep roaming" verb. Its sound was shaped by a clatter of other words: Swedish "ramla" and Danish "ramle" mean to stumble, fall or rumble, and a dialect form "rammle" shows the same stumbling-and-noise idea, with the consonants later shifting from "mm" to "mb". The sense of aimless wandering is the original one, and it came first. Only in the 1630s did the word take on the meaning of talking or writing without a clear thread, as if the speaker's mind were wandering the way the body does. That figurative use is the origin of the sense of a rambling speech or a discursive book.

Synonyms: meanders, strolls, wanders, roams, drifts

Antonyms: rushes, dashes, sprints