I WAS sitting, minding my own business, when a woman thrust a piece of paper in my hand.

I think the last time a member of the opposite sex had given me a note was at Cardiff Public School. The note said something like "meet me behind the bike shed at noon”.

This time the note said discombobulated. The note said "a new word for me”.

I think I had written something on this word about 20 years ago, but I couldn't find it.

Discombobulated is a made-up word but had found its way into some dictionaries.

It means something like confused.

The Macquarie says it means "to upset or confuse a person” and it comes from discompose or discomfort.

Webster says it means to perplex or upset.

My big Oxford says it was a jocular alteration of decompose or discomfit (note the different spelling for discomfit).

When it first appeared in the U.S. in the early 1800s - say 1825 to 1830 - discombobulate was just a playful, rootless coinage conveying a sense of confusion.

It was probably inspired by similar words like discomfit and discompose, but the - bobulate part has no etymological origin.

It is this nonsense quality that gives the word its meaning - to throw into a state of confusion.

To be discombobulated is to be thoroughly befuddled.

Max Cryer, in his book Curious, says discombobulated means disturbed, upset or disconnected. One of its earlier spellings was discombobricate. He said it was a favourite word for politicians not sure what town they were in.

The New York Sun in its early days said "maybe some of you don't get discombobracated” (note the different spelling).

Then in 1838 C Neal said "while you tear the one, you'll discombobberate the nerves of the other” (different spelling again).

The spelling then settled down, but it was always in a jocular fashion.

Kate Burridge, in her book Weeds in the Garden of Words, says "I do love this word”.

If you said something like "the speaker was completely discombobulated by the heckler” you would get a good idea about the origins of the word.

If you used the word confused you would also get a good idea.

Why discombobulated? What's wrong with confused?

I think some people like using big words. It makes them sound superior.

There are lots of such words, when you think about it.

I was always taught to use the shortest word.

Discombobulated is a slang word from the USA. It was originally meant to be a joke word, but it caught on.

A word site said discombobulated was likeable and catchy.

I'll leave that to you to decide.

Some people have tried to use combobulated, meaning to make order or removed from a state of confusion, but it hasn't caught on.

You won't find many uses on the dictionary. I looked in the Macquarie and the Webster but couldn't find it.

It certainly doesn't derive from some pre-existing word, but it is a back-formulation from discombobulation.

I imagine a synonym would be recombobulate.

If enough people start using combobulated it might eventually get into the dictionary.

In the Milwaukee airport, just past security screening, is a sign that says "recombobulation area”.

Does that make it a word?