History of Insults in English Language

This and the next essay are only impressionistic historical pieces. Much more could be done on this vital, and often overlooked, area of cultural expression. My thesis is that we can tell quite a bit about the culture by understanding when and how its insult words have developed, morphed, and faded in and out of the language. I argue here that in the history of English there are three formative periods of insult-creation: (1) the late 16th-late 17th century; (2) from 1900-1935; and (3) 1955-1980. I focus here primarily on single-word insults. Much more could be done on phrases or insult similes, as well as the development of insults in other languages.

The Early Period

This period extends for me from the invention of blockhead in 1549 to the coining of numbskull in 1697. Interestingly enough, however, the first usages of blockhead were descriptive rather than directed at a person. Miles Coverdale, commenting on Erasmus' paraphrase of I Corinthians 11:14, said: "A blockheade that hathe loste the judgemente of nature." Shakespeare, who seemingly used every word known to man, and invented a good deal more, could say in Coriolanus, "Your wit..'tis strongly wadg'd up in a blocke-head." The term derives from the wooden block that was usually used for hats or wigs. A blockhead therefore had no more intelligence than such a wood block. I love the fact that the earliest attestations are in theological works, for that is the place to find deepest animosity in the 16th and 17th centuries. From 1593: "Bee he the veriest blockhead under heaven."

What is interesting to me here is that the English language, at this point, has come up with terms of derogation but doesn't use them yet as terms of address. Except for the popular "Fool!", which some might argue isn't a term of derogation at all, language seems to be inching along, reaching for a concept (that of insult) that is so prevalent to us that we can barely imagine it not existing.

Well, here are a few other words from the early period. Ninny, perhaps first used as a shortened form of "innocent," and therefore not a derogatory term, appears first in 1593. From 1609 we have: "Not long since I discovered a nest of Ninnies in this great wombe the Worlde." Dunderhead is first attested in 1625 and means "a ponderously stupid person; a blockhead." No one knows the origin of this term, but some have connected it with the German "donner," to suggest thunder, a blow or loud noise. From 1625 we have "Oh, thou dunderhead! Wouldst thou be ever in thy wife's Syntaxis?" Syntaxis here, though literally meaning "grammar," also has a more racy connotation. Simpleton is attested first in 1650 to mean a person deficient in sense or intelligence. "If a solemn Synod may erre, what may a single Simpleton doe?"

What is significant for me from the "early period" so far is that the words/insults introduced primarily suggest deficiency of knowledge. They are not particularly derogations of character. Perhaps as Britain was expanding in the early 17th century, after its defeat of the Spanish Armada, what was most impressive to the nation was how ignorant of the world they really were. Displacing their ignorance on truly slow people, the culture invented these words: blockhead, dunderhead, ninny, simpleton.

The Early Period--A Few More

Let's conclude this incomplete list by introducing nincompoop and numbskull. The OED suggests that the former, first attested in 1673, may be derived from the French nicodeme, meaning simple or naive person (derived ultimately from Nicodemus, the one who "came by night" to see Jesus because he was ignorant of who Christ was), but I think that is a stretch. Samuel Johnson, the great biographer and lexicographer of the 18th century, suggested its origin from the Latin non compos (not understanding). In any case, a nincompoop is a simpleton or fool. From 1673: "Yes, you Nicompoop, you are a pretty Fellow to please a Woman indeed." Sterne's Life of Tristram Shandy (1760) puts it together with other words neatly: "In doing it, or after he had done, had he looked like a fool--like a ninnny--like a nicompoop." The spelling of it as in our own day (nincompoop) is also attested in the 17th century.

I was delighted to see that nincompoop is the fertile mother of children, such as nincom (1800, simply a shortened form) and nincompoopery (1900). The latter is used to describe foolishness or stupidity. Sinclair Lewis says, for example, in Arrowsmith: "Were they, in their present condition of nincompoopery, worth any sort of attention?" I was delighted to see that nincompoopiana developed around 1880, though it was used as a name for a late 19th century aesthetic movement. The London Times explained this in 1970: "'Nincompoopiana' began in the 1880s and was triggered off by the aesthetic movement which rebelled against the pretty and the respectable, and by the 'new woman.'" Very very nice, isn't it? Finally, there is nincompoopish (1852) which means "characteristic of or resembling a nincompoop." And, why was it invented in 1852, in America no less? Possibly because this was the height of the "Know-Nothing" movement in American politics. From 1852: "It is perhaps the deepest misfortune which should befall mankind now, that for the ensuing Presidential term the rule of the United States should be in the hands of the nincompoopish or the imbecile."

I am emboldened by all of this to try to make up my own words. How about a nincompooper? You could imagine several things that such a person would do. Or nincompoopdom, as the place where they tend to congregate? The possibilities, though not endless, are multifarious.

Well, this has gone on too long, but let's quickly conclude with numbskull. A 1699 dictionary has the following: "Num-skul, a Foolish Person." The first actual usage of the term was in 1697, and was spelled numpscull. "You take me for a numpscull." The OED hypothesizes that the numpscull spelling might well indicate an origin from numps, another "insult" term coined at the end of the 16th century. A numps is a silly or stupid person, as this 1599 quotation shows: "Lustie Humfrey, according as the townsmen doo christen him, little Numps, as the Nobilitie and Courtiers do name him." Oops, I see this essay could go on forever, since we have, in another quotation on numps, the word "noddie," which also comes from the 16th century and means "fool" or "simpleton."

Conclusion

Let's close this by summarizing where we are. We are not trying to be complete, but I have argued a thesis about the origin of insult words. The ones I suggest here are, in order, blockhead, ninny, dunderhead, simpleton, nincompoop and numbskull. Others, such as noddie or numps, could also be discussed. Let's go on, now, to the "modern" period of insult-development.

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