ÿWPCL ûÿ2BJ|xÐ °x ÐÐа¤˜Œ € tÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ°ÐЊ‚ÐÈÐ ÁàÁà ÃDEFINITION OF METAGROBOLOGISTÄ Ä ÁàÁà ÃDAVID SINGMASTERÄ Ä ÁàÁ87 Rodenhurst Road, London, SW4 8AF, UK ÁàÁTel/fax: 020©8674 3676; email: ZINGMAST @ LSBU.AC.UK ÁàÁWritten on 21 May 1997; last revised on 11 Feb 2000. ÁàÁLast updated on ØD1 3 4. DØ ÁÁThe Oxford English Dictionary's entry for METAGROBOLIZE describes it as humorous. Rabelais used metagaboulizer and Cotgrave (1611) translates it as "to dunce upon, to puzzle, or (too much) beate the braines about" and the OED gives: To puzzle, mystify; To puzzle out. ÁÁUrquhart's translation of Rabelais uses metagrabolising, Metagrobolism and metagrobolized. Kipling uses a form of the word in 1899, which is the latest citation given in the OED. ÁÁAbout 1981, Rick Irby, the American puzzlist, found the word used in the Wall Street Journal. Since then, the noun has been adopted by a number of puzzlers as a term for one who does and makes puzzles. ÁÁSeveral people have suggested that the noun forms should be metagroboly and metagrobolist but metagrobology is definitely easier to say and this implies using metagrobologist.