scramble or scumble?

[Murthy Yenamandra]

Craig Clark writes:
> George Handly writes:
> > SCUMBLE: a thin coat of color put on by scumbling; a softened effect
> > producing by scumbling
> > SCUMBER: a) the dung of a dog or fox b) to evacuate the feces.
> As I said in reply to grip at netcom.com, I stand corrected: on the 
> other hand, maybe there's a deep linguistic connection here... Any 
> philologists out there?

Pretty strong connection. It looks like "scumbled" is a close relative
of "scummed", meaning "covered with or as if with scum". Here is the
on-line webster entry:

-----
deca ~ [10:10am] 216: webster scumbled
1scum-ble \'skem-bel\ vt  scum-bled; scum-bling \-(e-)li{nj}\
[eeq. of 2scum]
(1798)
1a: to make (as color or a painting) less brilliant by covering with
     a thin coat of opaque or semiopaque color
1b: to apply (a color) in this manner
2: to soften the lines or colors of (a drawing) by rubbing lightly 

deca ~ [10:12am] 218: webster scum
1scum \'skem\ n
[ME, fr. MD schum; akin to OHG scUm foam]
(14c)
1a: extraneous matter or impurities risen to or formed on the surface
     of a liquid often as a foul filmy covering
1b: the scoria of metals in a molten state: DROSS
1c: a slimy film on a solid or gelatinous object
2a: REFUSE
2b: a low, vile, or worthless person or group of people
-- scum-my \'skem-e^-\ adj 
 
2scum vi  scummed; scum-ming
(1661)
:to become covered with or as if with scum 
-----

Murthy

-- 
Murthy Yenamandra, Dept of CompSci, U of Minnesota. Email: yenamand at cs.umn.edu
"Always there's that space between what you feel and what you do, and in
that gap all human sadness lies."