The headword be/mbhc can also be spelled be/mbic (thus in LSJ); and likewise for the derived verbs. The word is onomatopoetic, from the humming sound of the spinning top; it can also designate a buzzing insect. A 'spinner' (stro/mbos) is mentioned as early as Homer, in a simile at Iliad 14.413 (see sigma 1211).
[1] Comparable gloss, according to Adler, in the Ambrosian Lexicon.
[2] Greek Anthology 7.89.9-10 (in Diogenes Laertius 1.80), a man seeks advice from the sage Pittacus; cf. Gow and Page (vol. I, 70-71), (vol. II, 205-207), and another excerpt from this epigram at alpha 4305. On the attribution of the epigram, see alpha 4305 note. The spinning tops were taken as an oracular sign; cf. tau 522, chi 478. On Pittacus of Mytilene, one of the Seven Sages, see pi 1659.
[3] Aristophanes, Birds 1461 (web address 1) with explanation from a scholion on this verse.
[4] Aristophanes, Birds 1465; cf. sigma 1211.
[5] Aristophanes, Wasps 1517 (web address 2).
[6] Presumably quoted from somewhere but attested only here.