BOOBS, NINCOMPOOPS

[Daniel Cassidy]

Boob, booby
Búb Búbaí; búbaire, búbín,. 
A bellower, loud crier, weeper. 

Búb, búbaí, búbaire, búbín, bubán, búbail
Bellow, roar, a yell, hub bub; a booby, a blubberer; 
blubber as a child, weep in a melancholy way. A bittern. 
(Dineen, p. 136, Dwelly, p. 137, O'Donaill, p. 155).

Chapman's American Slang  (p. 38)  speculates boob is from a German dialect 
word bubbi, meaning "a woman's breast."  Barnhart guesses that boob is a 
"borrowing from German bube, meaning a worthless wretch, found in the writing of 
Luther..." (p. 106). No mention of the Irish and Gaelic búb, búbaí, búbaire, 
búbín, bubán, búbail.  

Extreme English cultural nationalism, also known as Anglo-Saxonism, has 
transformed Anglo-American dictionary editors into nincompoops.  

In Irish and Gaelic a búb bellows like a nincumopoop. 

A drunken continental tenor begins to sing: "Far away in Canada..."

Yank:  "Shut up yuh lousy boob."  (The Hairy Ape, p. 24)

+

ERIE: "...and the poor boob never stood a chance."  (Hughie, p. 278.)

+

Jamie (to Edmund): "You better wake up! You're setting no rivers on fire. You 
let hick town boobs flatter you with bunk about your future."    (Long Day's 
Journey Into Night, p 164)

+

Boobs and Nincompoops. 

Of course when we think of a búb (boob) we think of a  nincompoop. 
"Nincumpoop: a foolish fellow. "   (The Vulgar Tongue, Grose, 1785,  no pg.)

Nincompoop
Naioidhean (ar) cum búb   (pron. neeyan-com-boob; "dh" = "y")
(An) Infant in the shape of a blubbering boob.

Naioidhean, naoinán 
Infant. Infant-like, childlike; young baby. 
(O'Donaill, pp. 894- 895;  Dwelly, p. 685) 

Ar cum: in the shape

Búbaí; búbaire, búbín; búb, pr. pt., a' búbail, Vn., Bellow, roar, blubber as 
a child; weep in a melancholy way. A person who blubbers. (OD, p. 155).

"Nincompoop, a fool or simpleton, "...of uncertain origin." 
(Barnhart Dictionary of English Etymology,  p. 795)

Anglo-Saxonist nincompoops rule the discourse by volume. 

Daniel Cassidy
Director
The Irish Studies Program
New College of California
irishstudies at newcollege.edu

Vox Hibernicum