-
Welcome to the new B.I.R.D. Forum. Please be sure to read the "New Member / New Registered ? Please Read" thread in the Coffee Shop. This contains some important information. To become a full member ( £5.90 a year ) simply click on your user name near the top on the right I hope you enjoy the new site ................ Jaws ( John )
Dingbat
- Thread starter Wolfie
- Start date
Not a whole lot of help but:
Though dingbat as an insult didn't appear until 1911, the word dingbat first appeared in the 19th century. It was, at first, a plastic term, able to be used in several different contexts. In fact, an 1895 entry in Dialect Notes suggested seven current definitions for dingbat, such as (1) Balls of dung on buttocks of sheep or cattle; (3) A flying missile; (7) An affectionate embrace of mothers hugging and kissing their children; or (8) A term of admiration ('They are regular ding-bats' (speaking of girls)). We can see, can't we, how America needed ORDER in this cacophonous situation. So around 1911 ding-bat took on another meaning, the one which dominates today--a term of disparagement denoting a foolish or stupid person. What fascinates me is that at first the term denoted a foolish man but then gradually morphed, as the century wore on, to refer to a foolish woman. With the advent of "All in the Family," a sitcom of the 1970s, where Archie Bunker continually referred to his wife Edith as a "dingbat," the feminine association of the term was seared into our consciousness.
Well, you win and you lose. Recall how douche-bag went through precisely an opposite cultural transformation. When it was introduced as a derogatory term in 1963 it referred exclusively to females, but by the time I got to college in 1970, it was the standard greeting term among members of most fraternities. "How are you doing today, douche-bag?" Now, if anyone is a douche-bag, it is a male. See how the scales of justice work secretly in the world?
Here is an example of what I mean by the evolution of dingbat. From 1911: "Dingbatty, half crazy, imbecile. 'That fellow is dingbatty.'" 1915: "Dingbat, a fool. 'The boss called Ralph a dingbat because he made fun of him.'" But, John Irving, in his hilarious and strange World According to Garp (1972) could say: "Midge was such a dingbat...that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during WWII." Now, in 2006, a dingbat is a female. Actually, this trend began in the 1940s, according to S.B. Flexner, in his 1982 Listening to America, 282. In 2006 I don't believe that one would ever hear a man referred to as a dingbat.
Though dingbat as an insult didn't appear until 1911, the word dingbat first appeared in the 19th century. It was, at first, a plastic term, able to be used in several different contexts. In fact, an 1895 entry in Dialect Notes suggested seven current definitions for dingbat, such as (1) Balls of dung on buttocks of sheep or cattle; (3) A flying missile; (7) An affectionate embrace of mothers hugging and kissing their children; or (8) A term of admiration ('They are regular ding-bats' (speaking of girls)). We can see, can't we, how America needed ORDER in this cacophonous situation. So around 1911 ding-bat took on another meaning, the one which dominates today--a term of disparagement denoting a foolish or stupid person. What fascinates me is that at first the term denoted a foolish man but then gradually morphed, as the century wore on, to refer to a foolish woman. With the advent of "All in the Family," a sitcom of the 1970s, where Archie Bunker continually referred to his wife Edith as a "dingbat," the feminine association of the term was seared into our consciousness.
Well, you win and you lose. Recall how douche-bag went through precisely an opposite cultural transformation. When it was introduced as a derogatory term in 1963 it referred exclusively to females, but by the time I got to college in 1970, it was the standard greeting term among members of most fraternities. "How are you doing today, douche-bag?" Now, if anyone is a douche-bag, it is a male. See how the scales of justice work secretly in the world?
Here is an example of what I mean by the evolution of dingbat. From 1911: "Dingbatty, half crazy, imbecile. 'That fellow is dingbatty.'" 1915: "Dingbat, a fool. 'The boss called Ralph a dingbat because he made fun of him.'" But, John Irving, in his hilarious and strange World According to Garp (1972) could say: "Midge was such a dingbat...that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during WWII." Now, in 2006, a dingbat is a female. Actually, this trend began in the 1940s, according to S.B. Flexner, in his 1982 Listening to America, 282. In 2006 I don't believe that one would ever hear a man referred to as a dingbat.