nimrod

Definition of nimrod

6 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

(US, derogatory, informal)A foolish person; an idiot.

“Don't stick your fingers in the fan, you nimrod!”
“Jules, if you give this nimrod fifteen hundred bucks, I'm gonna shoot 'em on general principle.”
““I can't keep doing this. Uh, I can't keep pretending to be Mr. Charisma to all these nimrods. It's awful.” “But the Energy Vampire Council said we have to win, or else.” [exhales] “No. No. No. Enough. It ends now.””
““What is going on here?” “They had a strategy, Ty, which we should have had, which I did have.” “And she was properly wary of Barfus and me.” “What? Why would anyone be wary of you guys?” “Because we're spies, ya nimrod.” “Of course they are.””

See all 6 definitions

noun

(US, derogatory, informal)A foolish person; an idiot.

“Don't stick your fingers in the fan, you nimrod!”
“Jules, if you give this nimrod fifteen hundred bucks, I'm gonna shoot 'em on general principle.”
““I can't keep doing this. Uh, I can't keep pretending to be Mr. Charisma to all these nimrods. It's awful.” “But the Energy Vampire Council said we have to win, or else.” [exhales] “No. No. No. Enough. It ends now.””
““What is going on here?” “They had a strategy, Ty, which we should have had, which I did have.” “And she was properly wary of Barfus and me.” “What? Why would anyone be wary of you guys?” “Because we're spies, ya nimrod.” “Of course they are.””
Any great hunter.

“Old Ekdal, whom Gregers remembers as Lieutenant Ekdal, his father's partner in the timber business up north and a mighty Nimrod, has, after a term of imprisonment for illicit tree-felling, become a shambling old drunkard, who solaces himself by sporting expeditions in the lean-to attic which his son and he have fitted up for the purpose with withered Christmas trees and a little menagerie of hens, rabbits and the like.”
(alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of nimrod (“fool; idiot”).

name

A grandson of Ham; a mighty hunter and king of Shinar.

“Blake's depiction of the biblical Nimrod, whom Erdman traces to Young's poem, recalls Milton's Paradise Lost.”
“In the fourth century St. Ephraim the Syrian wrote, in his commentary on Genesis, that Nimrod 'ruled in Erekh which is Orhay (Edessa)'.[…]In Jewish and thereafter in Moslem tradition, Nimrod was the foe of Abraham.”
“The historical facts testify that they were highly developed; Nimrod, a descendant of Ham, therefore making him Hamitic, was the first human king not just of Bible record, but secular history also speaks of him. He ruled over a kingdom that included several cities in Mesopotamia.”
A British biplane fighter aircraft manufactured by Hawker Aircraft in the early 1930s.
A British maritime patrol aircraft manufactured by Hawker Siddeley, in use from 1969 until 2011.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

In most English-speaking countries, Nimrod is used to denote a hunter or warrior, because the biblical Nimrod is described as "a mighty hunter". In American English, however, the term has…

See full etymology

In most English-speaking countries, Nimrod is used to denote a hunter or warrior, because the biblical Nimrod is described as "a mighty hunter". In American English, however, the term has acquired a derogatory meaning of "idiot"; there are various hypotheses as to why. Most examples suggest an intermediate form where Nimrod is used deliberately to mock a hunter. Whether this usage was widespread, or how it influenced the final meaning where the hunter connotation is unintended, might be beyond reach. Possible reasons for the shift from "hunter" to "idiot": One suggestion is that Bugs Bunny's references to Elmer Fudd as a "poor little Nimrod", while most likely using the term's "hunter" sense, contributed to the development of a sense "one who is easily confounded". An alternative explanation of this sense is that it derives from the John Steinbeck memoir Travels with Charley: In Search of America, in which Steinbeck used the term sarcastically while describing an inquest that was held after a hunter accidentally shot his partner: "The coroner questioning this nimrod..." The Oxford English Dictionary, in turn, cites a 1933 writing as the first usage of nimrod to refer to a fool, predating Bugs Bunny by at least five years and Steinbeck by nearly thirty: in Hecht and Fowler's Great Magoo, someone remarks "He's in love with her. That makes about the tenth. The same old Nimrod. Won't let her alone for a second." However, this could still have been used in the sense of a hunter (i.e. someone pursuing a love interest). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary suggests that because the legendary Nimrod was associated with the Tower of Babel, a disastrous idea, nimrod acquired the meaning of "a stupid person." Another possible source of the sense is the play The Lion of the West by James Paulding. First performed in 1831, it features a comedic characterization of Davy Crockett named Col. Nimrod Wildfire who attempts to woo a young French woman. Another possibility is that there was an unattested dialectal or slang term for an idiot similar to Australian English ning nong, and that it became conflated with the more respectable term, perhaps as a euphemism.

Anagrams of nimrod

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DORMIN 9 pts

Words you can make from nimrod

47 playable · top: DORMIN (9 pts)

Best play dormin 9 points

5-letter words

1 word

MINOR 7 pts

4-letter words

13 words

3-letter words

21 words

2-letter words

11 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

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NIMRODS 10 pts