nincompoop
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈnɪŋkəmpuːp/
ipa: /ˈnɪŋkəmˌpup/
ipa: /ˈnɪn-/
Forms: form: nincompoops
form: nickumpoop
form: nicompoop
form: nincumpoop
Etymology: Uncertain; the first element nincom- is possibly from the name Nicholas or Nicodemus (compare French nicodème (“foolish or gullible person”), from the Pharisee named Nicodemus mentioned in the Bible who asks Jesus seemingly naive questions: see John 3:1–21), or from ninny (“foolish or silly person”), while the second element -poop could be derived from poop (“(obsolete) to cheat, deceive, fool”). The English lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) suggested that the first element might be from Latin non compos (mentis) (“not of sound mind”), but the Oxford English Dictionary notes that this does not correspond with early forms of the word from the 16th century such as nickumpoop and nicompoop.
Senses: examples: text: 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. Declaring their several Natures, Manners, and Constitutions; the occasion why this Ship was built, with the places of their intended Voyage, and a lift of the Officers that bear Command therein [book title].
ref: [1662?], The Ship of Fools [...], London: Printed by J[ohn] W[inter] for J[ohn] Clark, […], →OCLC, title page:
text: Yes, you Nicompoop, you are a pretty Fellow to pleaſe a Woman indeed.
ref: 1673, Tho[mas] Shadwell, Epsom-Wells. A Comedy, […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for Henry Herringman […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 28:
text: Mous[trappa]. O you huffing Son of a Whore. / Drink[allup]. You rotten Jack in a box. / Bean[tosser]. You foul mouth'd Nickumpoop.
ref: 1674 (first performance), T[homas] Duffett, The Mock-Tempest: or The Enchanted Castle. […], London: Printed for William Cademan […], published 1675, →OCLC; republished in Montague Summers, “The New Tempest or The Enchanted Castle”, in Shakespeare Adaptations: The Tempest, The Mock Tempest, and King Lear. […], London: Jonathan Cape […], 1922, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 114:
text: ’Tis ſuch another Nincompoop, / I ſleep, and he begins to droop. / He ſees, yet keeps his Eyes a winking, / Says nought, but pays it off with thinking.
ref: 1680, M. T. [i.e., Matthew Stevenson], “Cydippe Her Answer to Acontius”, in The Wits Paraphras’d: Or, Paraphrase upon Paraphrase: In a Burlesque on the Several Late Translations of Ovids Epistles, London: Printed for Will[iam] Cademan […], →OCLC, page 161:
text: Oh, thou Dromedary, thou Founder'd Mule, without a Pack-ſaddle; or what other foul Beaſt ſhall I call thee, for Man thou art not, nor haſt not been to me, Heaven knows the time when? Art not thou aſham'd to ſee me, thou Nincompoop?
ref: 1694, [Thomas] d’Urfey, The Comical History of Don Quixote. […], part I, London: […] Samuel Briscoe, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 6:
text: May'ſt thou paſs for a Nincumpoop all the World over, / From Paris to France, and from England to Dover.
ref: 1706, Michael de Cervantes Saavedra [i.e., Miguel de Cervantes], “How Don Quixote Took His Leave of the Duke, and what Happen’d between Him and the Witty Wanton Altisidora, the Duchesses Damsel”, in John Stevens, transl., The History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote de la Mancha. […], 2nd revised and amended edition, volume II, London: Printed for R. Chiswell, S. and J. Sprint, R. Battersby, S. Smith, and B. Walford, M. Wotton and G. Conyers, →OCLC, page 335:
text: [S]hall I be call'd as many blockheads, numſculs, doddypoles, dunderheads, ninnyhammers, gooſecaps, joltheads, nicompoops, and ſh--t-a-beds—and other unſavory appellations, […]
ref: 1767, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXV, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume IX, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC, page 99:
text: Nickumpoop, or Nincumpoop, a fooliſh fellow; alſo one who never ſaw his wife's ****.
ref: [1785, [Francis Grose], “Nickumpoop, or Nincumpoop”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, London: […] S[amuel] Hooper, […], →OCLC:
text: [H]ad he dropped it [a hat] like a gooſe—like a puppy—like an aſs—or in doing it, or even after he had done, had he looked like a fool,—like a ninny—like a nicompoop—it had failed, and the effects upon the heart had been loſt.
ref: 1787 November, “Explanation of the Fifth Plate of Tristram Shandy. Corporal Trim’s Reflections on Mortality in the Kitchen, on the Death of Master Bobby.”, in The Gentleman’s and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, Dublin: Printed by John Exshaw, →OCLC, page 589, column 2:
text: What, do you give it up so? you poor, ſpiritleſs nincumpoops! I would roar till I burſted firſt, before I would give it up so to such a low-liv'd, beggarly rabble.
ref: 1802, Joanna Baillie, “The Election: A Comedy, in Five Acts”, in A Series of Plays: In which It is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind. […], 2nd edition, volume II, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, act I, scene i, pages 4–5:
text: No wonder that Chauvelin's spies had failed to detect, in the apparently brainless nincompoop, the man whose reckless daring and resourceful ingenuity had baffled the keenest French spies, both in France and in England.
ref: 1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, in The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published 20 March 1912, →OCLC, page 183:
text: These epics nearly always had runaway trains, nincompoops floundering with the controls and a collapsed bridge just ahead!
ref: 1958 February 24, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:
text: Because of this situation, you find the idlers, the never-do-wells, the nicompoops, the unqualified and the misfits these days getting on better in life than their hardworking colleagues.
ref: 1965, Marius Nkwoh, Bribery and Corruption: Bane of Our Society, Aba, Abia, Nigeria: International Press, →OCLC, page 110:
text: Production failures, screw-ups, and faulty service aren't usually the fault of the supposed nincompoops with whom we're dealing but instead the Nincompoopery—i.e., the meta-foolishness—of the companies and systems in which they're forced to work. Ill-planned, outdated, or ludicrous organizational structures can turn even the most eager employee into a nincompoop, or at least force him or her to seem like one.
ref: 2019, John R. Brandt, “Overview: Are We Really Surrounded by Nincompoops?”, in Nincompoopery: Why Your Customers Hate You—and How to Fix It, New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins Leadership, →ISBN, pages 2–3:
synonyms: word: dunderhead
word: fool
word: imbecile
word: nitwit
word: gaby
word: hammerhead
word: putz
word: alcatote
word: asshat
word: arsehole
word: asshole
word: bayard
word: berk
word: birdbrain
word: blither
word: bobchin
word: bonehead
word: bozo
word: buffoon
word: brickhead
word: Charlie
word: chucklehead
word: chowderhead
word: chump
word: clart
word: clown
word: der-brain
word: dill pickle
word: dim bulb
word: dingleberry
word: dipshit
word: dipstick
word: dirtbrain
word: div
word: divvo
word: divvy
word: dolt
word: donk
word: doodle
word: doofus
word: dope
word: dork
word: dote
word: dotterel
word: dullard
word: dumbass
word: dumbbell
word: dumb fuck
word: dummy
word: dunce
word: dunderhead
word: dupe
word: fathead
word: fenderhead
word: fiddle
word: fuckwit
word: fuzznut
word: geck
word: gig
word: gink
word: goober
word: gooseberry
word: gowk
word: gubbins
word: gump
word: ha'p'orth
word: Homer Simpson
word: ignoramus
word: imbecile
word: jamoke
word: jerk
word: jerkoff
word: jolterhead
word: jolthead
word: juggins
word: jughead
word: knucklehead
word: lamebrain
word: mameluke (US (Italian-American)
word: slang)
word: maroon
word: meathead
word: mong
word: moron
word: mug
word: muggins
word: mushhead
word: nimrod
word: nincompoop
word: nit
word: nitwit
word: not the sharpest knife in the drawer
word: numskull
word: numps
word: numpty
word: nupson
word: oaf
word: pillock
word: pinhead
word: plonker
word: prat
word: retard
word: shit for brains
word: shithead
word: shitwit
word: schmo
word: schmuck
word: snapperhead
word: softhead
word: sot
word: stupid
word: sucker
word: thickhead
word: tonto
word: tool
word: tosser
word: tosspot
word: twat
word: twerp
word: twit
word: wally
word: wantwit
word: wazzock
word: yampy
glosses: A foolish or silly person.
wikipedia: Nicodemus
Oxford English Dictionary
Samuel Johnson
Derived terms: nincompoopish
nincompoopism
nincompoopery
Related terms: nincun