fopdoodle

English

WOTD – 24 July 2021

Etymology

From fop (“vain man, dandy”) +‎ doodle (“(obsolete) mindless person, fool, simpleton”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɒpduːdəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑpdudəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fop‧doo‧dle

Noun

fopdoodle (plural fopdoodles)

1. (obsolete) A stupid person; a fool, a simpleton.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idiot

   • 1663 (indicated as 1664), [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras. Canto III.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 177:

     And though you overcame the Bear, / The Dogs beat you at Brentford Fair; / Where sturdy Butchers broke your Noddle, / And handl'd you like a Fop-doodle.

   • 1687, [Miguel de Cervantes], “Containing the Goat-herd’s Story”, in J[ohn] P[hillips], transl., The History of the Most Renowned Don Quixote of Mancha and His Trusty Squire Sancho Pancha, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Hodgkin, and are to be sold by John Newton, […], →OCLC, part I, book IV, page 285:

     But among the whole Crowd of theſe Fopdoodles, there is none ſo frantick as my Rival Anſelm, who having the moſt juſt Complaints of any but my ſelf, to make, and perhaps not without reaſon, does nothing all day long but bewail her Abſence, when he knows the way to her again; […]

   • 1689, Tho[mas] Shadwell, Bury-Fair. A Comedy, […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, Act V, page 56:

     Come, come, you brace of Fopdoodles, where's your French Barber you are both ſo fond of; […]

   • 1818 June 6, “a country lad” [pseudonym], “Fashionable Follies. No. III.”, in Oliver Oldstaffe [pseudonym; Nathan Sargent], editor, The Letter-box, volume I, number XVI, Edinburgh: […] William Aitchison, for Alexander Mackay, […], →OCLC, page 246:

     How often did I curse my unlucky fate, and envy the happy non chalance of the fopdoodles who surrounded me.

   • 1821, R. Hatrick, “The Invasion”, in The Harp of Caledonia: A Collection of Songs, Ancient and Modern, (Chiefly Scottish.) […], volume II, Glasgow: […] Khull, Blackie, & Co. for Archibald Fullarton, & Co. […], →OCLC, page 246:

     But Monsieur take care, of old England beware, / For her children are ready to rise at a ca'; / Your fopdoodle breeding and mountebank cleading, / John Bull he abhors you, flagaries an' a'.

   • 1996, Joan Elizabeth Goodman, “Wallingford”, in The Winter Hare, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 103:

     "You two!" said Lady Margaret. "What will William Belet think?" […] Finally Edith broke the silence. "He thinks we're fopdoodles!" she said. And they all laughed.

   • 2013, Liesel Schwarz, chapter 7, in A Clockwork Heart (Chronicles of Light and Shadow; 2), London: Del Rey, →ISBN, page 76:

     Oh, Marsh. When did you turn into such a boring old fopdoodle?