nicompoop

English

Noun

nicompoop (plural nicompoops)

1. Obsolete spelling of nincompoop.
   • 1673, Tho[mas] Shadwell, Epsom-Wells. A Comedy, […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for Henry Herringman […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 28:

     Yes, you Nicompoop, you are a pretty Fellow to pleaſe a Woman indeed.

   • 1767, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXV, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume IX, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC, page 99:

     [S]hall I be call'd as many blockheads, numſculs, doddypoles, dunderheads, ninnyhammers, gooſecaps, joltheads, nicompoops, and ſh--t-a-beds—and other unſavory appellations, [...]

   • 1787 November, “Explanation of the Fifth Plate of Tristram Shandy. Corporal Trim’s Reflections on Mortality in the Kitchen, on the Death of Master Bobby.”, in The Gentleman’s and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, Dublin: Printed by John Exshaw, →OCLC, page 589, column 2:

     [H]ad he dropped it [a hat] like a gooſe—like a puppy—like an aſs—or in doing it, or even after he had done, had he looked like a fool,—like a ninny—like a nicompoop—it had failed, and the effects upon the heart had been loſt.

   • 1965, Marius Nkwoh, Bribery and Corruption: Bane of Our Society, Aba, Abia, Nigeria: International Press, →OCLC, page 110:

     Because of this situation, you find the idlers, the never-do-wells, the nicompoops, the unqualified and the misfits these days getting on better in life than their hardworking colleagues.