Noddypoll

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A silly, dim-witted person who lacks good sense, used as an old-fashioned term of mild insult for a simpleton
2. An archaic word for a foolish, slow-witted individual, someone whose head is thought to be empty of sense
3. Describing a dull, stupid person, a fool or blockhead of the kind once mocked in old English speech

Etymology: Noddypoll is a combination of two older English words, and its first half is the more interesting one. "Noddy" is a Tudor-era term for a fool, and it probably derives from the verb "nod," meaning to drop the head drowsily, so a noddy was someone who seemed always half asleep or easily fooled. "Poll" was a common slang name for a head, a usage that goes back to the 1500s and still survives in "poll" for the top of the head and in words like "pollard." Put together, a noddypoll is literally a "nodding head," a person whose skull seems to bob with foolishness. The compound appears in English by the 1600s, and it was used as a playful insult in comic writing of the period, when mocking someone's wits was a staple of the stage. Its formation follows an ordinary pattern of English slang, pairing a verb-derived word with a word for the head, and few people today would recognise either part without help.

Synonyms: fool, dolt, simpleton, noodle, nitwit

Antonyms: genius, sage