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variation (n.)late 14c., "difference, divergence," from Old French variacion "variety, diversity" and directly from Latin variationem (nominative variatio) "a difference, variation, change," from past participle stem of variare "to change" (see vary). The musical sense is attested from 1801. Related: Variational.
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hmm representative of a sound made during contemplation or showing mild disapproval, attested from 1868, but this is probably a variation of the hum attested in similar senses from 1590s.
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boner (n.)"blunder," 1912, baseball slang, probably from bonehead. Meaning "erect penis" is 1950s, from earlier bone-on (1940s), probably a variation (with connecting notion of "hardness") of hard-on (1893).
Related entries & more wren (n.)small, migratory singing bird, Old English wrenna, metathesis variation of earlier werna, a Germanic word of uncertain origin. Compare Icelandic rindill, Old High German wrendo, wrendilo "wren."
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Related entries & more "dense forest in an area of high rainfall with little seasonal variation," 1899, apparently a loan-translation of German Regenwald, coined by A.F.W. Schimper for his 1898 work "Pflanzengeographie."
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