maunder

Etymology

From earlier maund (“to beg”).

verb

1. To speak in a disorganized or desultory manner; to babble or prattle.
   "Not so fast, Lady Cecilia; not yet;" and now Louisa went on with a medical maundering. "As to low spirits, my dear Cecilia, I must say I agree with Sir Sib Pennyfeather, who tells me it is not mere common low spirits […]" 1834, Maria Edgeworth, Helen: v. 3, ch. V
   On the following day my friend's exhaustion had become so great that I began to fear his intelligence altogether broken up. But toward evening he briefly rallied, to maunder about many things, confounding in a sinister jumble the memories of the past weeks and those of bygone years. 1871, Henry James, “ch. IV”, in A Passionate Pilgrim
   What are you maundering about? He's going out from here a free man and whole—he's not going to die. 1889, Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, ch. XVII
   Whether Edwina [mother of Tennessee Williams] had sufficient self-awareness to recognize her own maundering about (say) "seventeen! – gentleman callers!" is doubtful, but she was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible. 14 November 2014, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times
2. To wander or walk aimlessly.
   [Deacon Mushrat to Pogo:] The Machiavellian barratry of a pettifogging public has maundered into do-nothingism. April 24 1959, Walt Kelly, Pogo, comic strip, page 35
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To beg; to whine like a beggar.

noun

1. (obsolete) A beggar.