dweeb and doofus and dirt bag and douche bad adn terms of derogation

I was amazed as I was studying the "D's" in the Collegiate that I kept running across insults or words of derogation, all of which I knew but which had the cumulative effect of making me pause and ask, "What is it with the 'D's,' that so many terms of abuse are here? The ten that I would like to review briefly here are: (1) dweeb; (2) doofus; (3) dirt-bag; (4) douche-bag; (5) dip-shit; (6) dippy; (7) dim-wit; (8) dim-bulb; (9) ditz, and (10) ditzy. There are also other terms, such as dork, dingbat and dolt, but I think I will try to keep this to a manageable 10.

Starting with a Question

Ok. The first question I want to ask is what date do you think each expression entered English? Let me list a series of dates, attested by the Collegiate. Then you can "match" them with the derogatory expression. As I go through each word I will give the first attested date according to the Collegiate and, when available, the OED. The dates are: 1899, 1921, 1927, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1968, 1973, 1982. Which goes with which?

Marching Through the List

1. Dweeb (1968). Though the Collegiate gives a 1968 date of origin, the first OED quotation is from 1972. Defined as "a person held in contempt, esp. one ridiculed as studious, puny or unfashionable; a fool," the word dweeb was attested in the NY Times in 1972: "They try to keep the kids from cut knees, from drowing, from insulting any hoseheads and dweebs on motorcycles." William Safire wrote, 13 years later, "Synonyms for earnest students, or 'pre-professional dweebs,' are proliferating." In 1988 the Washington Post could talk about the "dweeby, narcissistic Blaine...," and so we see a familiar phenomenon of adjective being derived from a pre-existing noun. The OED refers us to "nerd" as a synonym. "Nerd" was first attested in 1951 to mean "an insignificant , foolish, or socially inept person, a person who is boringly conventional or studious." [How do THOSE two concepts fit together?] However, the OED has updated its definition, though it doesn't tell us which year it did so, when it says "a person who pursues an unfashionable or highly technical interest with obsessive or exclusive dedication." The 1951 attestation was in Newsweek: "In Detroit, someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd." But, in 1993, Scientific America could write that, "Nerd is a movie shorthand for scientists, engineers and assorted technical types who play chess, perhaps, or the violin." Ah, an evolution of meaning even within derogatory terms.

2. Doofus (1960). The OED has doofus both as an adjective, "characteristic of a stupid or foolish person; dumb, dopey.." and a noun, "A foolish or stupid person; an idiot." Though the NY Times has a reference to doofus from 1955, it isn't certain to me whether this is a personal name or a noun. "Doofus lost every round from the third, but they give him the duke!" By the mid-1960s, however, it is attested in the OED: "Miss Ann...smiling a greatbig stupid doofus grin." The OED suggests that it might have been derived from goofus which was used frequently in the US military beginning in WWI as a humorous surname: "Here to the right is happy Joe Goofus, Smiles in his heart and smiles on his face...He laughs till he crumples up flat on his back." How does the "g" turn into a "d"? That is anybody's duess.

3. Dirt-bag (1967). This is not attested in the OED, but appears in the Collegiate and is defined "a dirty, unkempt or contemptible person." When I decided to to an Internet search for the term, one of the first entries I pulled up was the "MSN: Encarta" online encyclopedia. Rather than providing me a definition, however, it said: "Language Advisory!! The dictionary entry you requested contains langauge that may be considered offensive." Oh, my. I guess I really have strayed very far, haven't I? Maybe there is someone in the Eagle Forum or Focus on the Family who wouldn't like the term or, better, reserves the term only for liberals. Got to be sensitive to sensitivities.

4. Douche-bag (1963). I wonder if you guessed that douche-bag was introduced earlier than "dirt-bag." Even the OED has something about douche-bag. The word douche, with this spelling, goes back to the 18th century, but "douche-bag" doesn't occur until the 20th and, at first, in a medical context. For example, in a gynecological handbook for nurses, from 1908, we have the advice to "hang the douche-bag eighteen inches above the level of the patient's hips." By 1967, according to the OED, the term came into its more prominent contemporary usage: "Douche bag, an unattractive co-ed. By extension, any individual whom the speaker desires to deprecate." By the time I made it to the university in 1970, the language of "douche bag" was in the air, but it was almost universally applied to males. Once again, the males take over what properly belongs to women. Isn't that the complaint of the feminists? Well, at least we humanists finally took over a scientific term and used it for our own noble purposes.

The next essay will complete our little mental break.