Dweeble (1987)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

"Dweeble" is a longer form of "dweeb", I think.

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_Frederick Post_ (Frederick MD), 25 April 1987: p. A-3:

<<She and her friends use words such as "dweeble" and "ween bucket" for
someone who's "stupid, a jerk, anybody you don't like," she said.>>

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Of course "dweeble" (also "dwaible" etc.) is an old Scots word (which
appears in MW3).

The SND shows the noun as applied to a person, defined as "a weak, helpless
person; especially one who is over-tall", with examples from 1880 and 1901.
This is not impossible as the ancestor of the modern "dweeb[le]".

I am skeptical of the continuity of "dweeble", however, and I suspect that
the new "dweeb[le]" is an independent fanciful coinage, perhaps based on
"dwarf" (cf. "poison dwarf", in Jonathon Green's dictionary) + "feeb[le]".

Is any other information available?

-- Doug Wilson