[Ads-l] Bugs Bunny coins "Nimrod"?

[Ben Zimmer]

I wouldn't give Bugs sole credit, as much as I'd like to. Michael Quinion
does a good job of tracing the semantic evolution:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-nim1.htm

On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 12:11 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> According to "Now You Know" and WikiP, Chuck Jones et alia are the actual
> coiners of the idiot version:
> " The word “nimrod” is commonly used to describe someone who is acting like
> a doofus, but the word originally meant the opposite. “Nimrod” originally
> comes from the name of a biblical Egyptian king who was widely regarded as
> a skilled hunter. But, according to Wikipedia
> <
> https://nowiknow.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2889002ad89d45ca21f50ba46&id=aefcd20163&e=33dbfa3b8f
> >,
> Bugs Bunny (yes, the iconic cartoon character) used the term sarcastically
> in reference to hapless hunter Elmer Fudd. Viewers didn’t pick up the
> sarcasm and the meaning of the term reversed. "
>
> WikiP cites "Garner's Modern American Usage":
> https://books.google.com/books?id=mVcJqKs1isUC&pg=PR53#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Though they also cite the "Dictionary of Jewish Usage"
> https://books.google.com/books?id=Nk_RFL9LYg0C&pg=PA126#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> which says it was in use as meaning "maroon" (said to be Bugs'
> pronunciation of "moron", not referring to Maroons, runaway slaves (which
> the Straight Dope differs:
> https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-25808.html
> )) is noted as far back as the 1930s
>
>

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