1893 text

The umbles are the liver, kidneys, and other portions of the inside of the deer. They were usually made into pies, and old cookery books contain directions for the making of ‘umble pies.’


This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.

4 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Umbles \Um"bles\, n. pl. [See Nombles.]
The entrails and coarser parts of a deer; hence, sometimes,
entrails, in general. [Written also humbles.] --Johnson.
Humbles \Hum"bles\, n. pl. [See Nombles.]
Entrails of a deer. [Written also umbles.] --Johnson.
http://dict.die.net/umbles/

George lee  •  Link

Umbles; heart, liver, entrails of a deer. Alternative spelling for numbles. OED.
The word gives rise to the expression "to eat humble pie." ie to be humbled or humiliated. When the lord of the manor sat at high table with his familiars scoffing venison the hunter and his fellows occupied lower seats and ate the umbles in a pie. Source, "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable."

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

UMBLES, HUMBLES, Part of the Entrails of a Deer.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1662

  • Jul

1663

  • Jul

1665

1667