duffern.1
/ˈdʌfə/, U.S. /ˈdəfər/ slang.
1. A trader or pedlar, spec. a dishonest one who dupes others into buying inferior goods for a high price, e.g. by pretending that they are valuable items which have been smuggled or stolen, and offered as bargains. Cf. dudder n. Now historical.In quot. 1851: (apparently) a person who alters the appearance of goods for sale in this way.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > selling > seller > [noun] > itinerant or pedlar
pedder1166
pedlar1307
dustyfoota1400
tranter1500
hawker1510
jagger?1518
jowter1550
pedder-coffec1550
pedderman1552
petty chapman1553
swadder1567
packman1571
merchant1572
swigman1575
chapman?1593
aginator1623
crier1727
duffer1735
Jew pedlar1743
fogger1800
Jew1803
box wallah1826
packie1832
cadger1840
jolter1841
pack-pedlar1859
knocker1934
doorstepper1976
machinga1993
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > forgery, falsification > [noun] > one who forges or falsifies
counterfeiterc1430
falsary1435
forger1552
mangonist1605
forgerer1607
falsificator1609
duffer1735
fabricator1795
faker1819
penman1865
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > a charlatan, fraudster > [noun] > a sharper, swindler
hawk1548
huckster1556
shifterc1562
coney-catcher1591
sharker1594
shark1600
bat-fowler1602
guller1602
gull-groper1602
poop-noddy1616
int1631
shirk1639
knight of industrya1658
hockettor1672
biter1680
sharper1681
duffer1735
sharp1797
diddler1803
chevalier of industry1807
flat-catcher1821
thimble-man1830
thimblerigger1831
thimblerig1839
riggerc1840
chevalier of fortune1867
flim-flammer1881
spiv1929
sharpie1942
shrewd1954
1735 Proc. Old Bailey 11 Sept. 144/2 It was one Charles Hooper a Duffer, and if you are not the Man, you shall have a dozen of Beer.
?1747 Key to Flash Dialogue in Life & Char. Moll King 24 Duffers, Those who sell British Spirituous Liquors for Foreign.
1756 J. Fielding in Gentleman's Mag. 26 565 Another set of gamblers..call'd duffers..invite you to go down some alley, and buy some cheap India handkerchiefs.
1795 Fortnights Ramble through London (new ed.) 22 You have been dealing with a duffer..they carry none but the worst of wares, and charge three times the value of them.
1832 Examiner 268/1 On being searched, a complete stock-in-trade of a duffer was found upon him. His hat was crammed with rings, brooches, seals, &c...and a couple of watches, apparently of immense value..but got up in reality for the purposes of fraud.
1844 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit xxxvii. 433 Tom's evil genius did not..mark him out as the prey of ring-droppers..duffers..or any of those bloodless sharpers.
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour II. 70/2 The ‘duffer’ in English birds disguises them so that they shall look like foreigners.
1884 S. Dowell Hist. Taxation in Eng. III. i. iii. 38 A class of persons termed ‘duffers’, ‘packmen’, or ‘Scotchmen’, and sometimes ‘tallymen’, traders who go rounds with samples of goods, and take orders for goods afterwards to be delivered... These duffers were numerous in Cornwall.
1905 Daily Chron. 26 May 4/5 Ingenious ‘Duffers’... These individuals purchase cheap jewellery and gilt rings and attempt to pawn them for more than their value.
1957 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 70 203 He was the son of a transported felon and, as such, grew up in an unhappy environment—with ‘duffers and thieves,’ as one song says.
2. Australian. More fully cattle duffer. A person who steals and alters the brands on cattle. Cf. duff v.1 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > stealers of animals > [noun] > of cattle
dunaker1668
cattle-stealer1803
duffer1844
cattle-lifter1860
cattle-thief1862
rustler1878
planter1890
waddy1897
cattle-rustler1903
1844 Sydney Morning Herald 28 Mar. 2/7 Some line of defence might be adopted which is not known by the ‘duffers’ (cattle stealers) of other districts.
1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms I. v. 61 No cattle-duffer in the colonies could have had a better pair of mates.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer xxv. 352 What's a little money..if your children grow up duffers and planters?
1927 R. S. Browne Journalist's Memories 170 The cattle ‘duffer’..is just a plain thief.
1992 P. Theroux Happy Isles Oceania iv. 74 The large audience..looking like jackaroos and jillaroos, and the sort of cattle rustlers known locally as poddy-dodgers and cattle duffers.
2015 Townsville (Queensland) Bull. (Nexis) 19 Aug. 13 Police are chasing brazen cattle duffers who stole more than 400 head from a property near Charters Towers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
duffern.2
/ˈdʌfə/, U.S. /ˈdəfər/ slang or colloquial (originally British).
1. A person who is, or proves to be, without practical ability or capacity in a particular occupation or undertaking; an incompetent, inefficient, or useless person; (also) a person lacking in spirit or courage. Also more generally: a stupid or foolish person.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > person of weak intellect > confused, muddled person > [noun]
mafflardc1450
juffler15..
dromedary1567
madbrain1570
batie buma1586
addle-head1592
blunderkin1596
nit1598
addle-pate1601
hash1655
blunderbuss1692
blunderhead1692
shaffles1703
fog-pate1732
blunderer1741
puzzle-pate1761
slouch1767
étourdi1768
botch1769
puddle1782
bumble1789
scatter-brain1790
addle-brain1799
puzzle-head1815
shaffler1828
chowderhead1833
muddlehead1833
muddler1833
flounderer1836
duffer1842
muddle-pate1844
plug1848
incompetent1866
schlemiel1868
dinlo1873
drumble-dore1881
hodmandod1881
dub1887
prune1895
foozler1896
bollock1916
messer1926
Pilot Officer (also P.O.) Prune1942
spaz1965
spastic1981
1842 Ld. Houghton Let. 27 Nov. in T. W. Reid Life Ld. Houghton (1890) I. vii. 284 I do not think him the mere duffer that most people make him out.
1873 W. Black Princess of Thule xxv. 433 ‘Do you get £800 for a small picture?’..‘Well, no... But then I am a duffer.’
1883 T. Lees Easther's Gloss. Dial. Almondbury & Huddersfield Duff or Duffer, one short of pluck; a coward, or fool... This is comparatively a new word in this district.
1889 J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat 171 ‘Is it all right?’..‘Lovely..You are duffers not to come in.’
1923 I. Gershwin Someday You'll Realize in Compl. Lyrics (1993) 29/3 Pray tell me how much longer must my poor heart suffer; Though I'm no genius, still you know I'm not a duffer.
1989 R. Curtis & B. Elton Blackadder goes Forth in R. Curtis et al. Blackadder: Whole Damn Dynasty (1998) 371/1 I'm a complete duffer at this sort of thing.
2010 P. Murray Skippy Dies 138 If he could just be sure he wasn't going to end up a fubsy old duffer in a jacket from thirty years ago, so hopelessly failed he no longer even realizes what might have been...
2. A counterfeit coin or article; any object that is no good. Cf. duff v.1 1.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > worthless
hawc1000
turdc1275
fille1297
dusta1300
lead1303
skitc1330
naught1340
vanityc1340
wrakea1350
rushc1350
dirt1357
fly's wing1377
goose-wing1377
fartc1390
chaff?a1400
nutshella1400
shalec1400
yardc1400
wrack1472
pelfrya1529
trasha1529
dreg1531
trish-trash1542
alchemy1547
beggary?1548
rubbish1548
pelfa1555
chip1556
stark naught1562
paltry?1566
rubbish1566
riff-raff1570
bran1574
baggage1579
nihil1579
trush-trash1582
stubblea1591
tartar1590
garbage1592
bag of winda1599
a cracked or slit groat1600
kitchen stuff1600
tilta1603
nothing?1608
bauble1609
countera1616
a pair of Yorkshire sleeves in a goldsmith's shop1620
buttermilk1630
dross1632
paltrement1641
cattle1643
bagatelle1647
nothingness1652
brimborion1653
stuff1670
flap-dragon1700
mud1706
caput mortuuma1711
snuff1778
twaddle1786
powder-post1790
traffic1828
junk1836
duffer1852
shice1859
punk1869
hogwash1870
cagmag1875
shit1890
tosh1892
tripe1895
dreck1905
schlock1906
cannon fodder1917
shite1928
skunk1929
crut1937
chickenshit1938
crud1943
Mickey Mouse1958
gick1959
garbo1978
turd1978
pants1994
1852 G. A. Sala in Househ. Words 25 Dec. 356/2 A watch—a hideous, turnip-shaped affair..A friend..called it..a ‘duffer’.
1876 World No. 115. 19 He had purchased a veritable ‘duffer’ and could get no redress.
1889 Answers 29 June 66/1 If the note is a genuine one the water-mark will then stand out plainly. If a duffer it will almost disappear.
1916 R. A. Freeman Exploits of Danby Croker ix. 205 My eye lighted on another violin... Number two was a rank duffer... It was a poor thing, with sham purfling and a machine-made scroll that set your teeth on edge.
1992 Independent 27 June 34/4 For every perfect piece of stone fruit bought in Britain, we generally have to put up with two or three duffers—one mushy and juiceless, the next rock hard and sour.
3. Australian and New Zealand. Mining. A claim or mine which proves to be unproductive. Also attributive in duffer rush. Cf. shicer n. 2. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > places where raw materials are extracted > mine > [noun] > unproductive
duffer1854
shicer1855
shyster1938
1854 Geelong (Austral.) Advertiser 14 Oct. 5/4 The claim, so rich in professions and promises, is a positive duffer.
1855 Ovens & Murray Advertiser 20 Jan. 6/2 No one is game to run the risk of sinking two or three ‘duffers’ in the ridges and gullies.
1863 V. Pyke in App. Jrnls. House of Representatives N.Z. (3rd Sess. 3rd Parl.) D.–6. 3 The place was rushed by about 500 men, who speedily deserted it, and declared the Waitahuna to be a ‘duffer’.
1869 R. Waite Narr. Discov. West Coast Goldfields 15 Those first arrivals chose to call the expedition a duffer rush.
a1928 D. McK. Wright in A. E. Currie Centennial Treasury Otago Verse (1949) 54 We had sunk a hundred holes that was duffers.
1972 N. Miles Opal Fever 18 I haven't had much luck on the last four ‘duffers’ I've sunk.
Compounds
duffer's fortnight n. (also duffers' fortnight) a fortnight of the angling season during which trout are said to be caught easily.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > fishing for type of fish > [noun] > for trout > time
duffer's fortnight1904
1904 W. E. Hodgson Trout Fishing i. 28 We hear also of ‘the duffer's fortnight’: what can these words mean save that during the period of the Mayfly the trout are so abandoned in voracity that the need for skill in luring them is for the time gone?
1928 Daily Express 28 May 4/5 This annual festival of the Mayfly inaugurates the ‘Duffers' Fortnight’.
1972 Shooting Times & Country Mag. 27 May 19/1 The two weeks..have come to be known as the duffer's fortnight.
2014 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 24 May (Weekend section) 14 After months of waiting, Duffer's Fortnight is here; those amazing May days when the chalkstreams are wreathed in clouds of dancing mayflies..sending trout into a feeding frenzy.
Derivatives
(In sense 1.)
ˈdufferdom n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [noun] > inaptitude or awkwardness
unaptness1557
awkness1587
untowardness1598
inaptitude1620
unhandiness1706
inaptness1814
blunderheadedness1835
muffishness1849
muffism1854
dufferdom1856
dufferism1871
1856 Star (Ballarat, Victoria) 7 Aug. Nothing is left for us but..a condition of woe-begone, poverty-stricken ‘dufferdom.’
1905 G. B. Shaw Coll. Lett. 21 June II. 534 The crowd..would be cast anyhow and snubbed into more than their natural dufferdom.
2003 Philadelphia July 57/1 A shot that dribbles 30 feet instead of 200 yards, a score..that pinpoints your exact position in dufferdom.
ˈdufferism n. the style or character of a duffer; the condition of being a duffer.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [noun] > inaptitude or awkwardness
unaptness1557
awkness1587
untowardness1598
inaptitude1620
unhandiness1706
inaptness1814
blunderheadedness1835
muffishness1849
muffism1854
dufferdom1856
dufferism1871
1871 Liverpool Mercury 19 Jan. 3/7 The complete ‘dufferism’ of you and your friends.
2002 Scotl. on Sunday (Nexis) 5 Dec. 7 When does eccentric old bufferism cross the line and become inept reactionary dufferism?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
dufferv.
/ˈdʌfə/, U.S. /ˈdəfər/, Australian English /ˈdʌfə/, New Zealand English /ˈdʌfə/ Australian (and occasionally New Zealand) colloquial. Now rare (chiefly historical in later use).† 2. transitive (frequently in passive). More generally: to exhaust, wear out (a person or thing). Also intransitive: to wear out, come slowly to an end. Obsolete.
1. transitive. Mining. With out.
a. To force (a prospector) to abandon a claim after it proves unproductive. Chiefly in passive: to fail to find gold, minerals, etc. Also occasionally intransitive with passive meaning.
ΚΠ
1860 Age (Melbourne) 26 Oct. 6/3 The earliest [prospectors] on the spot had marked out their claims on the fancy ground, but their fancy was wrong, and they got duffered out to a man.
1878 Telegraph (Brisbane) 27 July 4/3 Every one of the claims has been opened for years, and at intervals re-occupied by miners duffered out on other fields.
1880 Queenslander 6 Mar. 303/3 If some of the reefs in the neighborhood, that duffered out their owners in the early days of the field, were again taken up they would prove fairly remunerative.
1883 Temora (New S. Wales) Star 18 May He might mention that Carroll and party who had duffered out at Sebastopol, had decided to prospect the gully from the Government dam.
1912 World's News (Sydney) 2 Mar. 21/3 I..bottomed two shicers on Red-hill, and was duffered out on the Gravelpits.
1935 Cairns (Queensland) Post 12 Oct. 14/5 When one party duffers out, another reports a new find or small patch.
b. In passive. Of a mine or claim: to prove to be unproductive; to become exhausted, give out. Also intransitive in same sense.
ΚΠ
1862 Sydney Morning Herald 9 Oct. 5/1 The Eureka lead is duffered out. Red Jack, the prospector, hangs in effigy by the neck from the flagstaff of the prospector's claim.
1875 Evening News (Sydney) 24 July 3/3 The Ben Nevis was prospected and supposed to have been duffered out about eighteen months ago.
1885 H. Finch-Hatton Advance Australia! 279 The lode had ‘duffered out’, and..it was useless to continue working.
1940 I. L. Idriess Lightning Ridge 160 In a couple of months Tom's claim duffered out.
1980 J. Wright Big Hearts & Gold Dust 26 Never try to find where gold come from... Git stuck inta it where ya know it is, and when it duffers out, pack ya swag an' go some place else.
ΚΠ
1876 Austral. Jrnl. Feb. 293/2 ‘What makes you look so glumpy, Jim?’ Sarah asked... ‘Why, you look as if you were duffered out!’
1894 C. J. O'Regan Voices of Wave & Tree 10 Life's claim is almost duffered.
1906 Bull. (Sydney) 24 May Old Jonas sheared away like fun, Until the shearing duffered out.
1929 Townsville (Queensland) Daily Bull. 23 Apr. 6/3 There is a strong and growing belief that Labor is ‘duffered out’. At any rate it has ‘duffered out’ the State's prosperity.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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