nincompoop

[prettygoodword]

nincompoop - n., a fool, a simpleton, a stupid person.


Late 17th century slang of unknown origin.

---L.

Comments

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Why, I say that all the time! I didn't know it had such a long heritage.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

We've had nincompoops around for a while.

---L.

unknown?

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, Larry, I've "always heard" that nincompoop was a corruption of non compos mentis, although that doesn't explain the poop part. Although we can guess where that came from. --Paul V (Howdy!)

Re: unknown?

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Howdy, Paul. Good to see your phosphors, at least. For that theory, I can only quote from the Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=nincompoop):

1676, nicompoop. Despite similarity [noted by Johnson] to L. legal phrase non compos mentis "insane, mentally incompetent" (1607), the connection is denied by etymologists because the earliest forms lack the second -n-. Weekley thinks first element may be a proper name, and cites Nicodemus, which he says was used in Fr. for "a fool," or Nicholas.

The other dictionaries just say "unknown."

---L.

[returnoftheblog.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Interesting that it's been around for a while.

Shame there's a lack of concrete history to it, though.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

That's true of most slang, though -- having only a hazy idea of where it's from. For both historical and current slang.

---L.