That's the "deathbed prayer," offered by a character in the novel "Vigil," by George Saunders, which Ezra Klein quotes to Saunders to begin the discussion "George Saunders on Anger, Ambition and Sin" (NYT).
That was a pretty strong way to begin the interview, and I'll bet Klein — as well as Saunders — thinks of himself unique, one of a kind, incomparable, and victorious. Surely, they're not little squirming powerless nincompoops.
"Nincompoop" seems like a word that would be examined in "Why Kids Are Starting to Sound Like Their Grandparents/The strange resurgence of words like 'yap' and 'skedaddle,'" (a NYT article blogged at that link). And it also reminded me of that George Will column blogged yesterday — "JD Vance vies for the gold medal in coarseness and flippancy" — the one that took umbrage at Vance's deployment of the insult "dipshit." If only Vance had been in on the kids' new trend and cared a little more about the problem of coarseness and flippancy, he could have said "nincompoop." Note how the excrement is discretely included.
The word "nincompoop" is, the OED says, first seen c1668 in the form of this title, which will give you lots of ideas for old words that could resurge: "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."
The first use of the word "nincompoop" in The New York Times came in August of 1861, recounting the statement of then-Congressman John Sherman: "[Congressman Samuel Sullivan 'Sunset'] Cox called [Sherman's] own constituents 'Nincompoops, intelligent baboons dressed up as Wide-Awakes, Gump-heads, mutton-heads, blabber, Dogbanes, toadies, and bloats, Suppose he [Sherman] should speak thus of [Cox's] Democratic constituents, would they not set him down as unfit to represent decent people?'"
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49 comments:
You left out "knuckle-dragger".
So, for Democrats, nothing has changed in 165 years.
Finally something AI is good for ...
Lollygagger: A person who wastes time or dawdles.
Scobberlotcher: Someone who avoids work or a lazy idler.
Slugabed: A lazy person who stays in bed too long.
Fopdoodle: An insignificant or foolish fellow.
Ninnyhammer: A simpleton or scatterbrained person.
Addlepate: Someone who is scatterbrained or foolish.
Dunderhead: A slow-witted or stupid person.
Mugwump: A person who remains neutral in politics or acts aloof.
Lickspittle: A shameless flatterer.
Pettifogger: A shifty lawyer or someone who argues over trivial details.
Poltroon: An old-fashioned word for a coward.
In the 1940 movie The Bank Dick, W.C. Fields (playing Egbert Sousé) asks Og Oggilby (played by Grady Sutton) if he wants to be a "luddy-duddy," a "mooncalf," or a "jabbernowl".
The Governor of Nebraska is in hot water with the liberal press and Democrats for using the word “libtard.”
Thanks for that list, Christopher B!
Charlatans, thimble-riggers, and Mountebanks.
Multiple people have lost their jobs or been forced into DEI training over the last 30 years for using "niggardly" -- it has no association with another similar sounding words.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/niggardly
niggardly(adj.)
"sordidly parsimonious, stingy," 1560s, from niggard + -ly (1).
It was while giving a speech in Washington, to a very international audience, about the British theft of the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon. I described the attitude of the current British authorities as "niggardly." Nobody said anything, but I privately resolved — having felt the word hanging in the air a bit — to say "parsimonious" from then on. [Christopher Hitchens, "The Pernicious Effects of Banning Words," Slate.com, Dec. 4, 2006]
As an adverb, "parsimoniously, grudgingly," from 1520s. Related: Niggardliness.
It's a good moment for Bierce and Mencken.
Gump-Head. Most people would picture Tom Hanks speaking Alabaman. I picture the porta potties in old LA, eg. the Andy Gump.
No doubt that many of these words of derision inspired Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.
In 16th and 17th Century society, allegations of being a cuckold were a serious insult. Lots of jokes appear in Shakespeare, including mimicking of the horns the grew on a cuckolds head (extend your pinkie and index finger from your closed fist.)
Along with moribund words, let's revive that insult genre.
Did wiseaker ever fall out of fashion? Never did according to my orbit…
"I think I should never have purchased a deathbed in the first place. The trouble is: once you buy a deathbed, then you gotta get a whole deathbedroom". —Norm Macdonald
I prefer blithering idiot said in the way of stephen fry.
I'm sitting tight till Hippie comes back around...
Far out!
Heavy
My old lady
Bogart
Freaks
Dig it
And so on and so forth....
Imagine a conservative columnist posting this:
"The party of FDR and Kennedy was transmogrified into the party of smelly hippies and collectivist shills, fantasy-based economists, revanchist bullies with Mao's Red Book, con artists of convenience, freelance racialists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of Bluesky, election cheats, nihilists in Levi's, brownshirts in black sweats, grifter tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive NPCs, Lamborghini libertines, people who believe Trump faked the shooting, little bleaters out to diminish the rest of us, Clinton’s evil spawn and their puddinghead president, a devious and viperous man firmly opposed to the free flow of information and of religious institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Democrats: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous."
Now here's Garrison Keillor's original quote:
"The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous."
“I'll bet Klein — as well as Saunders — thinks of himself unique, one of a kind, incomparable, and victorious. Surely, they're not little squirming powerless nincompoops.”
Perhaps that’s why the main character in Vigil is an oilman whose mortal sin was causing global warming: for purposes of differentiating literary types like themselves by virtue of their shared moral superiority by only using the energy produced by the greedy capitalist.
Kristi Noem is a dogbane.
And Obama too, arguably.
Don’t be coy Althouse. Tell us how you really feel about Ezra Klein.
Oh…
I've been a wiseacre since I was knee high to a grasshopper
"Slender-wits" sounds like it could be used these days.
You're just an aker.
Wow. Humble.
That first line makes me assume it’s a riff on Luke 18:9-14. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
There’s a commercial out that is adults (athletes?) speaking to kids and having the kids repeat that they are “special.” Teaching them to think of themselves as special. I dislike that intensely. Yes, each human is unique, but we are not special. It’s breeding narcissism and a need for that affirmation.
Well you can both believe you are special and a sinner. That God loves you as an individual and has great plans for you, which you have arrogantly disregarded to do what makes you feel good. Hence like the publican you beat your breast and beg for mercy.
Without that feeling of specialness we would just stay wallowing in shame. CC, JSM
Note how the excrement is discretely included.
Yes, but nincompoops are not as stupid, nor as nasty, as dipshits
Ref the other n word that describes parsimoniousness: I have personally witnessed lefties say “chink in the armor” and get away with it - once on a committee dealing with China! It’s who you support, not what’s in your retort. CC, JSM
Grokking one of my very favorite books:
John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor is filled with 17th-century,, often bawdy, and archaic insults, many of which are characteristic of the colonial Maryland setting and Restoration-era language. Key examples include "Grumbletonian," "Ninnyhammer," "Fopdoodle," "Cow-handed," "Gollumpus," "Blowsabella," "Cumberworld," "Dilberry maker," and "Death’s head upon a mop-stick".
Grumbletonian: A malcontent or someone always complaining.
Ninnyhammer: A fool or simpleton.
Fopdoodle: An insignificant, foolish man.
Gollumpus: A large, clumsy person.
Blowsabella: A disheveled, dirty woman.
Cumberworld: Someone who is useless and takes up space.
Death’s head upon a mop-stick: A description of a very thin or ugly face.
Cow-handed: Clumsy or awkward.
Dilberry maker: A term for a contemptible person.
Addle Pate: A person with a muddled or stupid mind.
Duke of limbs: A tall, awkward, and clumsy person.
Whiffle-whaffle: Someone who wastes time.
These terms, often used in historical fiction to create an authentic, rustic, and satirical atmosphere, reflect the harsh, colorful, and direct language of the era.
These various recitations feel like we're hearing from Hedley Lamar's family tree.
Millennial shills for Boomer. Not unique.
I've never met two people who are even superficially the same. Cats? yea. Fish? definitely. Rocks? nope.
You are unique - just like everybody else.
codswallop
pissant
Don't bogart the joint!
Now this old bloat had the choice of a score, / For he, you must know, was a hell of a bore.
The customers are [...] expressively named ‘bloats,’ ‘old soaks,’ ‘bummers,’ ‘rummies,’ ‘tods’ and so on.
Two visitors from the United States [...] emerging from St Paul’s Cathedral [...] ‘That’s no slouch of a church; say, who built it?’.
Still trying to decipher this one from 1953
The Bastard’s no slouch when it comes to a yike!
It's not dogbane, but Dogberry (or Dogberries). Per the google machine, when used as an insult, "dogberry" refers to a person who is a foolish, pompous, blundering, or incompetent official. It is derived from the character Constable Dogberry in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, who is known for his misuse of language (malapropisms) and his bumbling, pretentious approach to authority.
Key Characteristics of a "Dogberry" Insult:
A Bumbling Official: The term specifically targets someone in a position of minor authority who is ineffective or stupid.
Malapropisms: It implies the person constantly confuses words or uses words with the opposite meaning.
Tedious and Vain: A "Dogberry" is typically long-winded, pretentious, and self-important despite their lack of intelligence.
"Dogberryism": Sometimes used to describe the act of using a malapropism itself.
In short, calling someone a dogberry is a way of calling them a stupid, overconfident, and incompetent official or authority figure.
Interesting from the August 1860 article that the speechifier dismissed the threats of disunion in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election, "attach[ing] but little weight to them." As the kids say, that didn't age well.
In the ship of fools, the nincompoops are on the poop deck.
Samuel Johnson believed that "nincompoop" came from "non compos mentis" ("not of sound mind"), but that hasn't been the accepted etymology. Some word sleuths trace the "nin" back to ninny, but others point out that "nickum" and "poop" were 17th century slang for cheaters and cheating.
Here's hoping the Democrats will be hoist by their own libtards this year.
I miss Keillor.
Thanks to Smilin' Jack for the Barth opening. The following are also from The Sot-Weed Factor, in this case the English language insults in a slanging match between Anglophone and Francophone whores:
Whore; Frisker; Trull; Sow; Bawd; Strawgirl; Tumbler; Mattressback; Nannygoat; Windowgirl; Lowgap; Galleywench; Drab; Fastfanny; Ringer; Capercock; Nelly; Chubcheeker; Nightbird; Rawhide; Shortheels; Bumbessie; Furrowbutt; Pinkpot; Rum-and-rut; Coxswain; Conycatcher; Tart; Fluter; Cockeye; Crane; Trotter; Fleecer; Fatback; Nightbag; Vagrant; Arsebender; Sally-dally; Bitch; Saltflitch;
Canvasback; Hipflipper; Hardtonguer; Bedbug; Hamhocker;
Bullseye; Breechdropper . . . .
More later.
Lummox was a word my father in law was fond of using.
EAB said...
There’s a commercial out that is adults (athletes?) speaking to kids and having the kids repeat that they are “special.” Teaching them to think of themselves as special. I dislike that intensely. Yes, each human is unique, but we are not special. It’s breeding narcissism and a need for that affirmation.
////////////////////////////////////////////////
Yes, those are PSAs that run on obscure cable channels that cannot sell time for regular commercials. The whole "I am! ... Somebody!" crap has been around for many years. Forcefeeding self-esteem to youngsters just for being alive, I guess. A lot of the $$ spent producing those ads is from the taxpayers. The airtime itself is donated by the channel.
Wokeness prevents Klein from uttering the tradition morning prayer of Jewish men: “Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe who has not created me a woman.” Klein would have been better served by that one. He is not a woman, but he is a nincompoop.
Squirming Powerless Nincompoops would be a great name for a band.
It recalls a phrase from Vonnegut (Mr. Rosewater?)--talented sparrowfarts.
Giftbox; Craterbutt; Pisspallet; Narycherry; Poxbox; Flapgap; Codhopper; Bellylass; Trollope; Peddlesnatch; Backgammon; Joygirl; Prickpocket; Arsievarsie; Backscratcher; Bumpbacon; Full-o'-tricks; Posthole; Romp; Pigpoke; Scabber; Strumpet; Gullybum; Tess Tuppence; Slattern; Doxy; Chippie; Puddletrotter; Hetaera; Pipecleaner; Rumper; Hotpot; Backbender; Sink-o'-perdition; Leasepiece; Spreadeagle; Gutterflopper; Cockatrice; Sausage-grinder; Cornergirl; Codwinker; Nutcracker; Meat-vendor; Hedgewhore; Ventrenter; Lightheels, Gadder; Ragbag; Fleshpot; Lecheress; Tollhole; Pillowgut; Chamberpot; Swilltrough; Potlicker; Bedpan; Cotwarmer; Strumpthumper; Messalina; Slopjar; Hussy; Priest-layer; Harpy; and Diddler.
(I had recalled Peddletwat, but I only see Peddlesnatch in Barth's list.)
It's so sad to think that all this has been lost. People just don't know how to talk to each other any more.
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