Assorted comments

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 09:31:26 EST, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> wrote:

>That suggestion makes sense, as the phrase would then read "muddled doofs"
>which could be a shortening of "muddled doofuses".  I vaguely recall a
>discussion on the word "doofus" in ADS-L, but I don't recall how far back
>that word was citated.

Over on the alt.usage.english newsgroup I posted a 1955 cite where
"Doofus" is used generically for a dim-witted boxer, similar to "Joe
Palooka" or "Joe Schmo".  I see from the archives that Fred Shapiro
reposted it over here:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0306A&L=ads-l&P=R2541

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 noted that HDAS only has a 1966 cite (though it's "remembered from
Jonathan Lighter's childhood" c. 1960).  In any case, as Doug Wilson said,
"doof(us)" is too recent a coinage to be a source for "goof" -- the other
way around is more likely.  "Doofus" could have been derived from "goof"
via "goofus" (_Highlights Magazine_'s "Goofus and Gallant" dates to 1948,
according to <http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/16/gg/>).

--Ben Zimmer