Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Dingbat

Every once in a while I am taken by surprise by a word or phrase that has MANY more interpretations/definitions that I expected.

Such is dingbat.
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First up: Americanisms, Old and New by John Stephen Farmer (1889), has this to say:

ding-bat—This word seems to be applied to anything that can be thrown with force or dashed violently at another object, from a cannon-ball to the rough's traditional 'arf brick, and from a piece of money to a log of wood. From the Icelandic dengia, to beat.

 Then, we have this, from the Online Etymology Dictionary

dingbat (n.)—1838, American English, apparently originally the name of some kind of alcoholic drink, of unknown origin. It has joined that class of words (such as dingus, doohickey, gadget, gizmo, thingumabob) which are conjured up to supply names for items whose proper names are unknown or not recollected. Used at various periods for "money," "a professional tramp," "a muffin," "male genitalia," "a Chinese," "an Italian," "a woman who is neither your sister nor your mother," and "a foolish person in authority." Popularized in sense of "foolish person" by U.S. TV show "All in the Family" (1971–79), though this usage dates from 1905. In typography, by 1912 as a printer's term for ornament used in headline or with illustrations.

Google goes for contemporary, defining dingbat as "(1) a stupid or eccentric person; (2) a typographical device other than a letter or numeral (such as an asterisk), used to signal divisions in text or to replace letters in a euphemistically presented vulgar word." For origins, it adds the following:

mid 19th century (in early use applied to various vaguely specified objects): origin uncertain; perhaps based on obsolete ding ‘to beat, deal heavy blows.’ Sense 1 dates from the early 20th century.

So we're back to the Americanisms definition... as well as a variety of confusing possibilities!

But wait! There's MORE!

In the December 25, 1895, issue of Daily True American, there is a lighthearted article about slang, in which dingbat is used by one young fellow from Yale to describe "one of the prettiest girls I ever saw." (See my screen capture below. You may need to enlarge it or just go directly to this link to the article, which also offers up some other mindboggling slang such as seamuljugating and coostering.

There's a dingbat for you!

Finally, if you want to go completely (ding)batty... take a look at Green's Dictionary of Slang, which has an entire page-plus including the definition "a term of admiration" (from 1895, which lines up nicely with the article above).

More dingbats!!

All in all, way more definitions you can beat with a stick... or a bat.

Thank you, Banksy, for bringing us back to the origin of dingbat.
Graffiti by Banksy, rat with baseball bat, Kentish Town, London. (By Justinc [CC BY-SA 2.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], from Wikimedia Commons)

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: When the usual four-letter words just aren't good enough

Sometimes a little cursing (or a lot) is in order, and the usual four-letter words (with an occasional five- or seven-letter word) just don't cut it. Well, don't despair, because this week's slang-o-rama is here to help you get creative with your swearing and insults!

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To my mind, Shakespeare wears the crown as the king of insult. Peruse his plays, and you'll see what I mean. Next time some politician gets your goat, try snarling "There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune." (Henry IV Part 1, Act 3, Scene 3) or "Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows." (Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, Scene 1) and see if you don't feel better!

There are also many random Shakespearean (or Elizabethian) insult generators.

Like the sound of  "Thou venomed guts-griping popinjay!"? Then I invite you to check out the Shakespearean Insulter.

How about "Thou are an ordinary maltworm!" For similar invectives, head over to Shakespeare's Insult Generator.

If you need multiple insults to choose from (or maybe just a whole bunch of folks you'd like to unload on), then there's the Elizabethan Curse Generator, where you can ask for any number of curses at one time... 10, 100, 1000... go for it! (I am particularly fond of "Thou craven plume-plucked jolthead!")

Have kids around, so want to "watch your language?" Then you might want to try something like the Fantasy Swear Word Generator, which throws out such marvels as "Shoodlepoppers!" "Friscuit!" and "Feeble pheasant!" 

This is all well and good, but what about my favorite timeframe, the 19th century West? Well, there are some dandy expressions that might come in handy, courtesy of this "Buddies in the Saddle" blog post, including "Go to Halifax!" (which apparently Scarlett said to Rhett in Gone with the Wind).

You can find some lovely expressions in the High Country News post "Rants from the Hill: How to Cuss in Western" (Note to self: find a place in latest book to accuse someone of being a "no count flannel mouth chiseling chuckleheaded gadabout coffee boiler.")

However, for a jaw-dropping horrific you'll-never-come-back-from-this-one curse, I think the The Great Monition of Cursing by Gavin Dunbar, the Archbishop of Glasgow on the border reivers of 1525 wins, hands down. You can read the entire curse (in the Scottish vernacular with "approximate" current-day English translation) here, starting on page 5. I'll have to say, it's a pretty comprehensive curse, putting all our puny, uncreative four-letter-word efforts to shame.

"Them's fightin' words, you gorbellied crook-pated clotpole!"
(Fedor Solntsev, Fist Fight, 1836)