roister-doister

English

Etymology

After Ralph Roister Doister, a 16th-century comic play by Nicholas Udall. See roister (“to engage in riotous behaviour”).

Noun

roister-doister (plural roister-doisters)

1. (archaic, derogatory) A swaggering buffoon; a foolish braggart.
   • 1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierces Supererogation:

     A very artificiall beginning, to moove attention or to procure good-liking in the reader, unlesse he wrote onely to roister-doisters, and hacksters, or at least to jesters, and vices.