释义 |
nincompoopn.Origin: Of uncertain origin. Etymology: Origin uncertain; the second element may perhaps be poop v.2 (compare earlier noddypoop n.). The first element in α. forms may show a form derived from a name; compare French nicodème simple or naive person (see Nicodemite n.). With the first element in β. forms compare ninny n.1Various other etymologies have been suggested. Johnson's suggestion of non compos n. does not agree with the earliest forms. slang and regional. the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupid, foolish, or inadequate person > foolish person, fool > [noun] α. c1668 (title) The ship of fools fully fraught and richly laden with asses, fools, jack-daws, ninnihammers, coxcombs, slender-wits, shallowbrains, paper-skuls, simpletons, nickumpoops, wiseakers, dunces, and blockheads. 1673 T. Shadwell II. i. 28 Yes, you Nicompoop, you are a pretty Fellow to please a Woman indeed. 1685 J. Crowne iv. 39 Ay, for me Nickumpoop. 1694 L. Echard tr. Plautus Epidicus iv. viii, in tr. Plautus 109 Thou..hast led me by the Nose, as if I had been the meerest Nicompoop in the World. 1735 J. Miller v. 79 Yes, and if you had but taken as much trouble to make all fast, you would not have been made such a Nicompoop of as you are. 1739 H. Baker & J. Miller II. ix. 65 Can you, without shame..invest a Nicompoop with all your Wealth for six Words of Latin which he bellows out to 'em? 1762 L. Sterne V. vii. 48 In doing it, or after he had done, had he looked like a fool—like a ninny—like a nicompoop. β. 1678 6 Ninkompoop, or pitiful lowsy Tom Farthing.1697 T. D'Urfey iii. i. 15 Daphne uses him like a meer Nincompoop, she makes him carry her Slippers, or mend her Stockings.1706 (new ed.) Nincumpoop or Nickumpoop, a meer Blockhead, Sot or Dolt.1713 J. Addison in 16 July 1/1 An old Ninnyhammer, a Dotard, a Nincompoop.1779 H. Cowley ii. 18 Oh, that ever I should have been such a Nincompoop!1807 E. S. Barrett I. 93 Fashion, though a goddess, is a fool, and all her worshippers..are nincompoops.1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles & St. James (new ed.) xii, in I. 117 To make him feel a coward, a nobody, a nincompoop.1890 J. Fothergill II. x. 168 I know how to behave without making too great a nincompoop of myself.1922 ‘R. Crompton’ i. 28 Is my digestion to be ruined simply because this young nincompoop chooses to pay his social calls at seven o'clock at night?1952 57 865 He relied on one cryptic passage in one letter to brand the Secretary of State as a blundering nincompoop.2001 (Electronic ed.) 13 July Mr Cuffe seems to lazily adopt the ignorant prejudices of a foolish nincompoop. Derivatives the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > stupidity, dullness of intellect > [noun] 1791 H. Walpole 26 May The nincompoophood of her Prince. 1957 24 15 Walter Shandy had selected ‘Trismegistus’ as a name of legendary wisdom and magical potency; ‘Tristram,’ on the other hand, he regarded as the ultimate in nincompoopism. 2001 (Nexis) 27 231 That might be true of some bad libertarian economists, and probably does correlate with nincompoopism, maybe for the reasons Galbraith suggests. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.c1668 |