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

Sat Oct 13 23:20:21 UTC 2018

Just a note - today's crossword puzzle - 6 letter word for "dodo", starting
with "N".

On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 12:10 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> > I updated the wordorigins.org page on "nimrod" several months ago:
> http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/2195/
>
> Not having re-watched the Bugs/Daffy/Elmer as Nimrod 'toons (yet!):
> http://www.warnercompanion.com/eowbcc-e.html
>
> I agree with the "It was only Daffy's line", as "our little nimrod" sounds
> more like him - Bugs wouldn't be so erudite. I think what happened was
> that, considering the audience, the "Biblical great hunter Nimrod"
> connection wouldn't arise, but in all the quotes from adults, right up
> through Tom Clancy (who probably knows his Bible characters), it seems that
> "nimrod" is just being used as a fancy name for hunter; it's not being used
> as connoting "moron" but that it being used ironically to compare the
> idiocy of what their doing to actions of a skilled hunter, Nimrod himself
> even.  I don't see that Washington Irving was trying carve out a class of
> hunter who behave stupidly and then naming them "nimrods".
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 4:37 PM David Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
>> 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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>
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>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
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Andy Bach,
afbach at gmail.com
608 658-1890 cell
608 261-5738 wk

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