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

[David Wilton]

I updated the wordorigins.org page on "nimrod" several months ago: http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/2195/

It wasn't Bugs who called Elmer Fudd a nimrod, it was Daffy Duck, although lots of people, including me, have memories of Bugs doing so. (There are other instances of such false memories of movies, such as Jaws's girlfriend having braces in the Bond film "Moonraker." Lots of people distinctly remember her having them; she does not.)

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Baker, John
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2018 3:25 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Bugs Bunny coins "Nimrod"?

It occurred to me that the example from the Dexter Free Press was probably a reference to an earlier usage in the same newspaper.  It’s almost certainly the following one, where “nimrod” (lower case) is a sarcastic term for “hunter.”  From the Dexter (Kansas) Free Press, Nov. 1, 1889:  “There is a larger crop of prairie chickens, quail and jack rabbits this season than for years, and doughty nimrods are burning considerable powder in attemping [sic] to scare the life out of the poor, innocent creatures.”


John Baker


From: Baker, John
Sent: Thursday 11 October 2018 2:28 PM
To: 'American Dialect Society'
Subject: RE: Bugs Bunny coins "Nimrod"?

Here are a couple of pre-Bugs examples of “Nimrod” from Newspapers.com.  I’m not sure to what extent the first one should be taken at face value.  In the second, “What a Nimrod!” is a sarcastic way to say “What a great hunter!”  “Nimrod” used to be a much more common term than it is today, and I didn’t spend much time looking at this, so I’m sure these can be improved upon.

Dexter (Kansas) Free Press, Nov. 29, 1889:  “Jim Handy wants to know what a nimrod is.  It is this.  In the article you seen it mentioned in, it means a fool.”

Shepherdstown (W. Va.) Register, Mar. 5, 1903:  “It is announced that the President is to go West in a few weeks and hunt big game.  Let us hope he will have a change of luck.  With Washington full of trust magnates, tariff robbers, money grabbers and other great game the past winter, the only thing he succeeded in harming was a handful of humble, inoffensive citizens at Indianola.
What a Nimrod!”


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Ben Zimmer
Sent: Thursday 11 October 2018 12:15 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Bugs Bunny coins "Nimrod"?

External Email - Think Before You Click


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<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<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<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<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<https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-25808.html>
> )) is noted as far back as the 1930s
>
>

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