zappeln.
to wriggle, to make fidgety movements (with the limbs and/or torso)
Meaning & usage
to wriggle, to make fidgety movements (with the limbs and/or torso)
ein zappelndes Baby
Where this word comes from
From Late Middle High German zappel(e)n (15th c.), from older zabel(e)n, from Old High German zabalōn (“to move, wriggle”), from Proto-West Germanic *tabulōn, from Proto-Germanic *tablōną, an iterative-diminutive of Proto-Germanic *tabōną, whence English tave (“to struggle, wrestle”). Ultimately onomatopoeic, like younger tappen. In zab(b)eln, the short vowel was preserved under the influence of following -el-. Voiced obstruents in such position sporadically undergo secondary devoicing in High German (cf. doppelt, Zettel). On the other hand, the form zaplen is already attested in Parzival (early 13th c.), where it seems to be due to expressive intensivation. Both tendencies may have reinforced each other in this case.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.