WORD ORIGINS

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Sue P sent me an email:

Hi Otto

I was watching an old movie that referred to someone as a dunderhead which started me thinking about other odd words for stupidity I heard as a child like nincompoop and ninnyhammer and why we might no longer use them within a comparatively short timeframe Hope you are well

Sue

Thanks Sue.

I confess that I had not heard of ninnyhammer before.

You are right, language is a living and ongoing process, words drop out and new words are constantly being added to reflect new items, developments and events.

Here are comments on the words you have raised, plus some more.

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Dunderhead:

Meaning:

Dunderhead is a more colorful way to say "dummy" or "stupid." It's derogatory, but not the meanest. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a ponderously stupid person”. The words below tend to have similar meanings.

Origin:

The origin is uncertain, first usage in print 1630.

The most likely source is the Scots verb “dunner,” meaning “to resound with a loud and reverberating noise,” especially “to fall with a loud sound.” This “dunner,” in turn, has been traced to the Old Norse “duna,” meaning “to thunder,” which in turn goes back to the Germanic root “dun,” for a loud noise.

The Scots verb “donner” means “to stun with a blow or loud noise” (OED), and the related adjective “donnered” means “stunned or stupefied,” as if by a blow. Hence a dunderhead could mean one who behaves as if stunned by a blow.

Another theory holds that the word comes from Dutch “donderbol” meaning 'cannonball,' thus comparing the head of a dunce to that thick, iron ball and signifying his/her lack of intelligence or commonsense.

Still another theory is that dunderhead arose from Dutch dunderkop 'numbskull, (lit. thunderhead.)' (In Dutch the word donder means thunder. Think of Santa’s reindeer Donner and Blitzen, lightning and thunder in German). The possible explanation behind this theory is that thunder is loud and abrasive, lacking in refinery as is a dunce.

You pays your money, you takes your pick,

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Nincompoop:

One early theory about the origin of the word asserted that it was derived from the Latin phrase "non compos mentis" ("not of sane mind"). Samuel Johnson, the great British lexicographer, introduced this etymology in his dictionary of 1755. For two reasons, though, this derivation is no longer accepted:

- "non compos" has no equivalent to the second "p" in "nincompoop."

- the earliest recorded uses of the word date from the 1600s and apparently unfamiliar to Johnson are spelled "nicompoop" or "nickumpoop." Their lack of a second "n" makes the derivation from "non compos mentis" highly unlikely.

The word nincompoop perhaps came from Nicodemus, the name of a Jewish Pharisee in the New Testament who became something of a byword for slow-wittedness. Nicodemus secretly visited Jesus one night to hear about his teachings. Jesus explained, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God’, which puzzled the Pharisee, who took Jesus literally and said ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’

Again, you pays your money . . .

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Ninnyhammer:

This term for a person who is a fool or a simpleton has for the most part vanished except in works that consciously seek to evoke a bygone age through antique language. For example Volume Three of J R R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: “You’re nowt but a ninnyhammer, Sam Gamgee: that’s what the Gaffer said to me often enough, it being a word of his.”

Ninnyhammer is first recorded from the late sixteenth century. Its origin isn’t altogether clear.

The first part, ninny, looks like the word we still know today, which is thought to come from a shortened and modified version of an innocent, because innocent at this time could mean a person lacking in intelligence or sense, who was silly, half-witted, or imbecilic. However, it’s far from certain from the dates when they were first used whether ninny comes from ninnyhammer or the other way around.

The second part is less obvious, but might be from hammer-headed, which could also then refer to a person who was dull-witted or stupid.

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Dunce:

The word dunce comes from a thirteenth century Scottish philosopher, John Duns Scotus, whose resistance to new ideas and mystical beliefs inspired opponents to equate his followers, the "Duns disciples," to "dullards." Later, some teachers made children wear pointed paper "dunce caps" when they misbehaved.

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Numbskull:

Originally, a numskull (using the original spelling num) was a person who was not able to count, or was clumsy and unskilled. The term later came to mean a stupid or ignorant person.

The word dates from the Middle Ages.

In some parts of Scotland, the term 'numskull' is still used to describe a clumsy or unskilled person.

In literature, the term 'numskull' has been used to describe characters who are ignorant or unintelligent. For example, in Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night', the character Malvolio is referred to as a 'numskull' by others.

1697: "You take me for a numpscull”

The Innocent Mistress, a play produced in London.

Swift in 1724: ”I remember not to have known a greater numbskull than thou art.”

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More to come.