Thanks to Keegan-Michael Key (of “Key & Peele” fame) I heard a while back that “Nimrod” is a figure of strength in the Bible. So does anybody know how the word “nimrod” came to be a less-than-flattering one?
Nimrod was a hunter; Bugs Bunny would refer to Elmer Fudd as a “little Nimrod” so maybe that’s where the usage got turned from positive to negative. At least that’s what I read - I have no firsthand knowledge of Bugs calling Elmer Fudd a little Nimrod.
There are some other explanations here:
Very helpful. Thanks!
Not “a little Nimrod,” “poor little Nimrod.” It’s a very early Bugs, before he had taken on his current form. He calls Fudd “Nimrod” much as some will address an idiot as “Einstein.”
You may be right about the origin. My WAG is that the ongoing popularity of “nimrod” as a derogatory term is based on it sounding like an insult. “Nim” brings to mind “dim” and the Orkan insult “nimnul”; while the “rod” part makes the word sound like a euphemism for male genitalia.
I can see some sense in that – it rhymes with “dipwad.”
Genesis 10:8 and 10:9 call Nimrod a mighty one inthe earth and a mighty hunter before the lord. And that’s about all the bible says about him.
I’d just like to add that Nimrod (pronounced Neem-RODE) is a very common Israeli name.
Interestingly, although the biblical references to the name being a mighty hunter, the next appearances occur in English from the 1500’s-late 1600’s and refer to such characters as tyrants.
Likely because of the tradition that it was Nimrod who ordered the Tower of Babel built. This isn’t outright stated in the Bible, but it can be inferred from Babel being one of the cities Nimrod ruled (see Genesis 10:10).
However it started, this is clearly the reason it continued.
Cf. “What a maroon! What an ignoranimus!”
Once a word is established as ‘sounding funny’ it’s difficult to be objective. But, nimrod definitely seems to have a certain onomatopoeia-tic prevalence towards sounding goofy*!*
I suspect that this is almost entirely confined to the USA. Nimrod to me, is the title of the 9th of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. It is supposedly a reference to his friend and advisor Augustus Jaeger (Jäger = German for hunter) and Nimrod described as described as ‘a mighty hunter before the Lord’.
It is a common affectation to use words to mean the opposite of their usual meaning - bad = good, sick = great etc. This is a kind of irony I suppose.
The Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus’s work was well received during his life, but became heavily criticized later. Hence, the tradition of calling someone of apparent low intelligence a “dunce”.
Good point. It sounds like it would mean something akin to “numb nuts,” vaguely insulting one’s manhood without getting too specific.
It’s not just that. In the UK Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ is now almost exclusively associated with remembrance, specifically with remembrance of the war dead and of the First World War. To make the cliched comparison, it’s the British equivalent of Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Moreover, almost no one now gets the Biblical allusion. So the only connotations that the name has are very serious ones indeed.
Certainly - It is played at remembrance services up and down the country on Nov 11 every year.
It is, apparently, also a popular choice at individual funerals, although I do wonder if that might also have a military connection.
Nope; plenty of civilians like it too.
There is the RAF Nimrod as well; retired in 2011.
Cuando el Rey Nimrod, a classic Ladino song.