The act of writing or drawing carelessly, hurriedly, or in a hasty, unorganized way.
From Latin 'scribere' (to write), which became Old French 'scribbler.' The diminutive or frequentative suffix '-ling' suggests doing something repeatedly or carelessly. Emerged in Middle English around the 13th-14th centuries.
Medieval monks used 'scribble' as an insult for hasty, bad handwriting—it's amusing that a word born from criticism of sloppy writing is now used casually for doodling, showing how language rehabilitates its own insults.
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