nincompoop means A foolish or silly person. It carries an Arena rating of 1482, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, nincompoop ranks #502 of 17,128 for Most Whimsical Words, #745 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,765 of 17,122 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #5,870 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
nincompoop is pronounced /ˈnɪŋkəmpuːp/.
Why “nincompoop” is a great word
A foolish or silly person, particularly one whose folly manifests in absurd, self-satisfied ineptitude rather than mere dimness. Its etymology is uncertain: the first element nincom- is possibly from the name Nicholas or Nicodemus (compare French nicodème, a foolish person, from the biblical Pharisee Nicodemus) or from ninny ("fool"), while the second element -poop could be from the obsolete verb poop ("to cheat, deceive, fool"). Unlike a "simpleton," whose failing is a quiet lack of sense, or a "dolt," who is dull and thick, a nincompoop is defined by a kind of spectacular, performative silliness. He is the man who locks his keys in a running car, the bureaucrat who follows a rule to literal ruin, the fellow earnestly trying to sweep back the tide with a child’s broom—a figure whose very existence is a gentle argument against taking the world, or oneself, too seriously.
Etymology
Uncertain; the first element nincom- is possibly from the name Nicholas or Nicodemus (compare French nicodème (“foolish or gullible person”), from the Pharisee named Nicodemus mentioned in the Bible who asks Jesus seemingly naive questions: see John 3:1–21), or from ninny (“foolish or silly person”), while the second element -poop could be derived from poop (“(obsolete) to cheat, deceive, fool”). The English lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) suggested that the first element might be from Latin non compos (mentis) (“not of sound mind”), but the Oxford English Dictionary notes that this does not correspond with early forms of the word from the 16th century such as nickumpoop and nicompoop.
noun
- A foolish or silly person.
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