Nimwit

A YouTuber was describing a dumb politician and used this word. It is a word blend congruent conflation of “dimwit” and “nimrod”, both terms describing a stupid person.

The idiom “nimrod” doesn’t seem to be used often these days. The usage perhaps was first recorded in an 1836 letter from Robert E. Lee to a female friend. Lee describes a “young nimrod from the West”, who in declining an appointment to West Point expressed the concern that “I hope my country will not be endangered by my doing so.” Although Lee may have been sarcastically referring to the student as a “tyrant or skillful hunter”, the modern usage more closely fits his message. The usage is often said to have been popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny sarcastically referring to the hunter Elmer Fudd as “nimrod” to highlight the difference between “mighty hunter” and “poor little Nimrod”, i.e. Fudd. However, it is in fact Daffy Duck who refers to Fudd as “my little Nimrod” in the 1948 short “What Makes Daffy Duck“, although Bugs Bunny does refer to Yosemite Sam as “the little Nimrod” in the 1951 short “Rabbit Every Monday“.

A big shout out to Verbatim for hearing this one and sending it in.