English
thimbleman
From thimble + -man.
Formed from thimble + -man
Proto-Indo-European *tum- ‘to swell’
…
Proto-West Germanic *þūmō ‘thumb’
Old English þūma ‘thumb’
Old English þȳmel ‘thimble, thumbstall’
Middle English thymbyll
English thimble
Today it means
noun A fraudster who operates a thimblerig game.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / thimbleman