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• nincompoop •

Pronunciation: ning-kêm-pup • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An affectionate synonym for simpleton, dunce, dumb-bunny, and similar such deprecative terms referring to low mental capacity.

Notes: Sometimes people you love do foolish things that you wish to criticize affectionately. Today's Good Word is just the term you need for such situations. Nincompoops are nincompoopish people who behave nincompoopishly. If you engage in nincompoopery on a regular basis, you could achieve the awesome status of nincompoophood! Wow!

In Play: Today's Good Word is such a pleasant way to call someone stupid in a way that suggests forgiveness: "Oh, no! The old nincompoop has put his trousers on backwards again!" English playwright William Wycherley, however, let its use get out of hand in his 1676 play, The Plain Dealer: "Thou senseless, impertinent, quibbling, drivelling, feeble, paralytic, impotent, fumbling, frigid nincompoop". (Something I said?)

Word History: An earlier 16th century word, noddypoop, may have influenced today's word, which first appeared in print in 1673. It seems to be a compound of ninny, a reduced, slang form of innocent + poop. Poop began its career referring to the rear (aft) of a ship (as in poop deck) in the 15th century and ended up referring to the hinder parts of people. In the 16th century, a poop was a toot on a horn or a blast of air through a horn but by 1744 it referred to a blast of gas from the hinder part of a person or animal. Virginia Woolfe, in her novel Voyage Out (1915), seems to have been the first to have published poop indicating a bore or stupid person. We assume that a nincompoop is a poop superior to a plain one.

...and speaking of Freud, he commented somewhere that civilization began when Man first started throwing insults instead of rocks, or words to that effect. I would venture to say--without proof-- that there are far more insults in the dictionary than compliments. Civilized people seem to take a wicked satisfaction in them. Still, "nincompoop" reminds us that offensiveness can be fine-tuned ;insults can be incremental. Take, for instance the following list of insults (nobody likes to take insults.) in ascending or descending order: noodle, noddy, ninny, ninny hammer, notable lubber, nutsy, nimble-footed madcap, numbskull and nitwit. That's eNough for now...

by 1744 it referred to a blast of gas from the hinder part of a person or animal.

When did it become the solids that exit the hinder parts?

We also have "to tire," "give up the ghost," "ruin."

I'm pooped.
My car pooped out on me.
Don't invite him. He's a party pooper.

We could do an entire section just on poop. Fun word. Scatological, yet completely acceptable in the right places.

We are back to the nether regions. Haven't we "bottomed out" yet?

Ha! My wife's grandmother never could pronounce this word right. She kept pronouncing it "nincomPOOT". She may have been unknowingly referring to the "blast of gas from the nether parts of a person or animal". She was a real card.

Perhaps the POOT was a form of euphemism? Rather than say the "P" word, she went with something that would be understood, but not be the actual word. My father was an avid sportsman, playing tennis, squash, fencing, even some basketball. I never heard him swear. If he mucked up, his choice of word was "shoofty". Or he'd rebuke himself by last name, "Oh, Busch!"

Good point, Slava. My father was a First Sergeant in the Marine Corps. When he swore, there were no euphemisms involved! He's really mellowed out now in his old age. Still wouldn't want to make him angry, though.

Another interesting euphemism that comes to mind is one I gather is rather common in Canada. Asphalt is regularly pronounced "ash-fault".

My father was in the service, too, but, as he loved to relate, after all the weeks of basic training, being taught how to kill, his first assignment was as life-guard at the officers' pool.

I've heard it pronounced "ash-fault", too, and I'm in the Deep South! Go figure. I remember after going through weeks of Army basic training (also learning all the various ways to kill and maim), as well as weeks of paratrooper training, my first assignment was gathering counter-intelligence on Spanish-speaking countries. Those were the days, my friend. I'm glad I had the privilege of serving. I still miss it.

I've always figured nincompoop must have been a playful onomatopoeic corruption of 'non compos mentis' and evidently Samuel Johnson thought so too.

Even if we're both wrong, at least I'm in good company, another harmless drudge.

See:
https://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/tag/nincompoop/

I can't help wondering what an adjectival or adverbial form would look like. Nincompoopteric? Noncompooptotic?Nincompooply? Nincompooptastic?

What in the world sort of person would spend valuable time on such conjectures?

What in the world sort of person would spend valuable time on such conjectures?

I'd say you're a logophile.

wsodonnell2, don't forget the participles (present-nincompooping and past-has nincompooped). Strange what sticks in your mind.

This sounds like Dr. Smith on Lost in Space!

English playwright William Wycherley, however, let its use get out of hand in his 1676 play, The Plain Dealer: "Thou senseless, impertinent, quibbling, drivelling, feeble, paralytic, impotent, fumbling, frigid nincompoop".

... My father was a First Sergeant in the Marine Corps. When he swore, there were no euphemisms involved! ...

My father was a Gunny. He never talked in his sleep; he swore!

I learned from the best!