Antedating of "Doofus"

[Fred Shapiro]

Noodling around in the alt.usage.english archives, I found a significant
antedating of "doofus" posted to that newsgroup by Ben Zimmer.  The
Historical Dictionary of American Slang has 1966 as its first printed
citation, 1960 as its first "remembered from Jonathan Lighter's childhood"
citation.  But Zimmer found the following usage from searching ProQuest
Historical Newspapers; he speculates that by 1955 "doofus" might have been
a generic name for a dimwitted boxer, similar to "Joe Palooka":

1955 John Lardner in _N.Y. Times_ 25 Dec.
"Doofus lost every round from the third, but they give him the duke!"
"Gratz had him on the floor in the fifth!"
"You shoulda seen it!"
"What kind of officiating is that!"
"Was you there? You was? Then let me tell you what happened!"


Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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