Contemporary Insults in English

In an earlier essay I listed the following fifteen modern insults, with their years of first attestation, that I said I would be interested in exploring: 1. weirdo (1955); 2. kook (1960); 3. doofus (1960); 4. shithead (1961); 5. dipshit (1963); 6. douche-bag (1963); 7. dickhead (1969); 8. klutz (1965); 9. dirt-bag (1967); 10. jerk-off (1968); 11. dweeb (1968); 12. ditzy (1973); 13. dink (1974); 14. wacko (1977); and 15. ditz (1982). Lest you think that this exhausts all insults, I could do also something with the following: geek, battle-axe, geezer, clot, freak, bozo, pill, featherbrain, softhead, tomfool, turkey, ding-dong, cretin, dope, jackass, bimbo, slob, schlump, schmo, schmuck, fag, faggot, space cadet, and probably even more that I have not yet uncovered! But because I don't want these essays to drag on interminably (unless, by popular demand, you request essays on some of these words!), I will close these essays with a few words on "modern" insults. Those I will mention are, in order, dickhead, klutz, kook, and weirdo. Join me for the ride, if you can stand it.

Dickhead (1969)

Though the Collegiate gives the first appearance of "dickhead" as 1964, the OED only provides a 1969 quotation. I don't need to go to the mat on this one, however, since both dates are well within our defined period. Interesting about dickhead, however, is that there were a few "dick-type" words that preceded it, none of which caught on. In James Halliwell's 19th century Dictionary of provincial phrases, He gives us two "dick" words: (1) Dickass, which is defined as "jackass"; and (2) Dick-a-tuesday, the "ignis fatuus." The former never caught on, though jackass certainly did, and seems to be alive and well as I write. The ignis fatuus is a sort of "will-o'-the-wisp," or an evanescent light which appears in swamps. Thus a "Dick-a-tuesday" (why Tuesday?) would be a deceptive person. But it wasn't until 1969, according to the OED that we have the following: "Tito screamed, 'I tell her you got it, dick-head." Here there is no doubt that it means a "stupid person." So, it was an established usage just before I entered college. I think that dickhead, along with douche-bag, was probably one of the more endearing greetings with which the fraternity brothers welcomed each other each day.

Klutz (1965)

The word klutz means "wooden block" in Yiddish. It may derive from that word but it also may be dependent on the old English word "Clod." A clod not only refers to a "lump or a rounded mass," but had, by the mid-17th century, been used to describe a "dull fellow" or "fool" or "chump." Ben Jonson had the honor of first using it in this way: "Feats of fine understanding/ To abuse clots and clowns with." By 1876 clot was defined as "a clumsy fellow." Thus, both streams, the Germanic/Jewish and the English, contribute handsomely to the development of "klutz." Its first appearance was in 1965 in the Saturday Review: "The dancers look good and the artists look a little klutzy." Other quotations emphasize that klutz and its adjectival form klutzy suggest someone who is either awkward or socially inept.

Someone even tried to introduce the character of Santa Kluhtz in 1970, but, since no one talks about the guy now, he obviously didn't make it. Ah, too bad, for this might have been an opportunity to fashion a Jewish and Christian holiday figure, sort of like a menorah morphing into an Advent candle and forming a Judaeo-Christian symbol. It might have been well had this happened, since the US Supreme Court spent a good deal of the time in the 1980s trying to figure out whether menorahs or Santa Clauses or manger scenes on public property violated the constitutional prohibition against government establishment of religion. If we had Santa Kluhtz, even the Court might have been bamboozled.

Kook (1960); Kooky (1959)

I have to confess, I just love the sound of the word "kook." I could wander around town saying it all day. Actually the adjective kooky predated it by one year, in the following sentence: "Get set for some far-out talk on teen-age romance by the kookiest cast in town--Edd Byrnes." Well, the origin of the word probably had more to do with the TV show "77 Sunset Strip" (1958-63) than anything else. One of the first teen idols on TV was Edd Byrnes, who played the role of Gerald Lloyd Kookson III ("Kookie") in this drama. Kookie was, as this web site suggests, a "cool, hip talking, parking lot attendant who turned up his collar and had a quirk of combing his hair back when talking sometimes, which teens picked up on right away." Edd Byrnes was to TV what Wolfman Jack was to radio, one cool dude, a guy who was on the edge of coolness and could instruct guys aspiring to coolness how to dress, talk and make it with the girls.

But by the 1970s the memory of Kookie had faded, and the word became associated less with coolness and more with a person who was "a bit nuts." In those days it was mostly associated with women. From a 1971 Daily Telegraph piece: "A 'kooky' young American woman: enthusiastic, energetic, enterprising and 'a bit nuts.'" Or, from an Ontario newspaper in 1970: "There's nothing you can do, so accept your mother's kookiness gracefully. Her antics in no way diminish you in the eyes of your friends." Thus, it has the same meaning today--of someone who is "cranky, crazy, eccentric," though I don't think that anyone would say that kookiness resides only in women.

More could be said about the connection of the term with cuckoo, but I will pass on that at this point.

Weirdo (1955)

I will close all these "insults" essays with a word on "weirdo." First appearing in 1955, it was preceded by "weirdie" (1894) and "weird," which originated sometime in the Middle Ages. The original meaning of weird had little to do with eccentricity or unconventionality. Rather, as we see with the Weird Sisters (Witches) in Macbeth, "weird" had more to do with a connection to the supernatural or to the ways of fate than to something eccentric.

The "eccentric" meaning of weird first appears in the late 1850s, along with the phrase "weird and wonderful." "These [poems] are doubtless meant to be very weird and wonderful, but they are mere breath, and..barren as the wind." So, when we have weirdie meaning "an odd and unconventional person" in 1894, the road has long been prepared for it. I suppose, then, when weirdo appeared in 1955 to mean "bizarre, eccentric, odd," the way was also well paved for it. Indeed, in that last quotation, it might be interesting to study how bizarre has made a comeback in the last few years--at least around my law school!

Let these words be my valedictory to a topic whose depths I have only slightly broached here. I still am of the mind that there are "periods" in the history of English-language insults, though my original categories may need to be refined a bit. I think my thesis still holds. And, I hope you enjoy and profit from this rather ....hm...bizarre way of reading history.

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