nincompoop

plural nincompoops · alternative obsolete nickumpoop · alternative obsolete nicompoop · alternative obsolete nincumpoop

1. derogatoryA foolish or silly person.First known use 16th c.

   Yes, you Nicompoop, you are a pretty Fellow to pleaſe a Woman indeed.

   1673, Tho[mas] Shadwell, Epsom-Wells. A Comedy, […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for Henry Herringman […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 28

   5 more examples

   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. Declaring their several Natures, Manners, and Constitutions; the occasion why this Ship was built, with the places of their intended Voyage, and a lift of the Officers that bear Command therein [book title].

   [1662?], The Ship of Fools […], London: […] J[ohn] W[inter] for J[ohn] Clark, […], →OCLC, title page

   Mous[trappa]. O you huffing Son of a Whore. / Drink[allup]. You rotten Jack in a box. / Bean[tosser]. You foul mouth'd Nickumpoop.

   1674 (first performance), T[homas] Duffett, The Mock-Tempest: or The Enchanted Castle. […], London: […] William Cademan […], published 1675, →OCLC; republished in Montague Summers, “The New Tempest or The Enchanted Castle”, in Shakespeare Adaptations: The Tempest, The Mock Tempest, and King Lear. […], London: Jonathan Cape […], 1922, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 114

   ’Tis ſuch another Nincompoop, / I ſleep, and he begins to droop. / He ſees, yet keeps his Eyes a winking, / Says nought, but pays it off with thinking.

   1680, M. T. [i.e., Matthew Stevenson], “Cydippe Her Answer to Acontius”, in The Wits Paraphras’d: Or, Paraphrase upon Paraphrase: In a Burlesque on the Several Late Translations of Ovids Epistles, London: Printed for Will[iam] Cademan […], →OCLC, page 161

   Oh, thou Dromedary, thou Founder'd Mule, without a Pack-ſaddle; or what other foul Beaſt ſhall I call thee, for Man thou art not, nor haſt not been to me, Heaven knows the time when? Art not thou aſham'd to ſee me, thou Nincompoop?

   1694, [Thomas] d’Urfey, The Comical History of Don Quixote. […], part I, London: […] Samuel Briscoe, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 6

   May'ſt thou paſs for a Nincumpoop all the World over, / From Paris to France, and from England to Dover.

   1706, Michael de Cervantes Saavedra [i.e., Miguel de Cervantes], “How Don Quixote Took His Leave of the Duke, and what Happen’d between Him and the Witty Wanton Altisidora, the Duchesses Damsel”, in John Stevens, transl., The History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote de la Mancha. […], 2nd revised and amended edition, volume II, London: […] R. Chiswell, S. and J. Sprint, R. Battersby, S. Smith, and B. Walford, M. Wotton and G. Conyers, →OCLC, page 335

   Synonyms: dunderhead, fool, imbecile, nitwit, gaby, hammerhead, putz, alcatote