grumble

The story

1. Middle Dutch · derived fromgrommen“to growl, grunt”
2. Middle Dutch · derived from*grommelen
3. Old French · derived fromgrumeler“to murmur, grumble”
4. Middle French · borrowed fromgrommeler
5. English todaygrumble

Probably from Middle French grommeler, from Old French grumeler (“to murmur, grumble”), from Middle Dutch *grommelen ("to murmur, mutter, grunt"; > Modern Dutch grommelen (“to grumble”)), frequentative of Middle Dutch grommen (“to growl, grunt”). Cognate with Middle Low German grummelen (> Low German grummeln (“to grumble”)), German grummeln (“to grumble”), Norwegian dialectal grymja (“to growl, grunt”).