Someone remind me to nominate this thread for “Hijack of the Year”
Definitely deteriorated. It has lost a specific meaning, and become a general term only loosely associated with its original meaning.
BTW: Isn’t the SDMB dedicated to fighting ignorance? I see a great bunch of people who are ignorant of the meaning of a word using it routinely in an in appropriate manner. In the OP, this is especially disconcerting, since the image that came to mind was of an inconsiderate putz in camouflage clothing (useless anyway because animals don’t see colors) toting a rifle into an elevator and being rude about it - “Punch for the fourth floor,” whilst holding the muzzle of the rifle under the nose the peron next to the floor buttons.
You folks get over it. You have all collectively screwed the pooch, and the poor dog’s ass is mighty sore.
From the American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language (Fourth Edition):
nimrod
SYLLABICATION: nim·rod
NOUN : 1. also Nimrod A hunter. 2. Informal A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.
ETYMOLOGY: After Nimrod Sense 2, probably from the phrase “poor little Nimrod,” used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd.
QED.
Mort, where did anyone indicate that we didn’t know the specific meaning? Just because someone chooses the more informal definition doesn’t mean that they are ignorant of other definitions.
You’re assuming the dog is male. You chauvanistic BASTARD! What, it couldn’t be a bitch? We have to be screwing a MALE dog? And that would mean that you’re implying that all of the MEN in here are HOMOSEXUAL bestialists as well! The shame, the horror, the shock…
…the giggling…
I surrender.
The word has been misused so long and so often that even the dictionary misses the point. Bugs was referring to Elmer sarcastically as a “Mighty Hunter.”
The battle lost, Mort slinks off to his dream world in which people actually know the meaning of the words they use.
::Sigh::
Do you also answer to “Hamadear?”
RAH joke.
Not from you.
I still think you’re the one missing the point. Common misuse can become proper use. Just look up “quantum”, for one example. And, as I pointed out above, as we seem to know more definitions than you, you can hardly claim that we’re ignorant.
Change is often unpleasant, but inevitable.
Mort…I see what you’re saying, but I have a question. Using your same example of Bugs Bunny, when he says, “What a maroon” in regards to Elmer, does he mean that Fudd is really that color? Or is it that he’s changing the textbook definition?
I don’t know what is meant by a “maroon.” From context, it would be some kind derogatory term, but lacking knowledge of the background I have never used the word in that sense. Possibly it is a mispronunciation of “moron.” I don’t know. I do know that nimrod means “mighty hunter” and is used with sarcasm to indicate an inept hunter (who behaves like a putz and an idiot.)
Hamadryad:
I was not asking for permission to call you that. I simply was wondering if you knew the connection to “Time Enough for Love,” or if you had encountered the word in another context.
Am I to take from your terse reply that you have taken a disliking to me based on these postings?
You know folks, I just realized how funny this thing is. We’ve got Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd being quoted against Beavis and Butthead.
I give up. Popular culture has won.
Y’all were all only using a common expresion that I was unaware of. I didn’t think that such a (really oddball) expression would come into common usage in a way so far from its original meaning.
Carry on calling people “Nimrod” when you mean putz, and I will try to banish from my mind the images of a gun toting putz in an elevator.
Hate to interrupt, but I have something to say regarding the OP - just wanted to mention that I am a claustrophobe, and riding an elevator is absolutely pushing the limits of my tolerance for small, enclosed spaces (I’m usually one strange elevator movement away from popping a tranquilizer, because, you see, the elevator might stop and TRAP ME INSIDE SO THAT I CAN’T GET OUT!!!). So, if you see me crowding the front of the elevator and elbowing people aside to get out first, please remember that claustrophobes are people too, and we’re not all lucky enough to work in buildings where we can walk up the stairs. (Of course, not all jerks on elevators are claustrophobes - some are, though. :))
Oh, with regard to the hijack - Mort Furd, you did come off pretty heavy-handed and pedantic.
Quite right. Is this or is this not the Pit? Incorrect word usage irks me no end. It grates on my nerves like the “could’ve” “could of” and “you’re” “your” mix ups.
I stand corrected. A nimrod is a putz (among other things.)
Personally, I would have put this as your number 1. There’s nothing worse than being on a hot, stuffy elevator, and then suddenly … oh dear God, the smell! :eek:
I love having access to this thing online! Hours of word-searching fun.
The word “Nimrod” has two meanings detailed therein:
Interesting, no? Nearby, we have the word “nimpy-pimpy”, meaning:
So… Mort Furd’s obsessions with such nincety-finceties
as the proper usage of words according to definitions given in dictionaries, his pedantic attempts at browbeating us into limiting our usage of same, and his final re-lurking behind a cloud of bemoaning the loss of English to the forces of evolution, makes him nothing more than a…
[sub]oh, tell me you don’t see this coming![/sub]
nimpy-pimpy Nimrod.
If it’s any consolation, it’s taken me years not to cavil each time I hear someone use “disrespect” as a verb.
And speaking of cavilling, my elevator-related gripe:
Anyone of any age who pushes all the floor buttons and then gets out, leaving some other poor souls to suffer an interminable journey should be forced to work as an elevator operator for a period of not less than five years. Complete with silly uniform.
A few years ago, the X-Men comic had a model of mutant hunting Sentinel robot called Nimrod.
There is a definition of “maroon” that refers to people:
Main Entry: 1ma·roon
Pronunciation: m&-'rün
Function: noun
Etymology: French maron, marron, modification of American Spanish cimarrón, from cimarrón wild, savage
Date: 1666
1 capitalized : a fugitive black slave of the West Indies and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries; also : a descendant of such a slave
But this doesn’t really seem appropriate to the way in which Bugs Bunny used the term. According to the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, the use of the term to mean “a stupid person” dates back to the 40s.
I did some searching on this word a couple years ago and found a web site that supported a derivation from the definition above (unfortunately I can’t find it again so this is just hearsay). According to that source, the word came into general culture through the Jazz sub-culture in the 30s and 40s where it was a derogatory term used by American blacks in reference to the “stupid” immigrant blacks from the Carribbean. It quickly became a general term for stupidity.
I have no opinion on the likeliness of that etymology, but I figured I would throw it out there. (The Pit is the place for this kind of thing, right?)
Regarding the OP, I can’t believe no one has mentioned this one:
If you’re boarding an elevator which already contains passengers, DON’T keep the door from closing so that you can continue your excruciatingly prolonged conversation with your buddies who aren’t joining you. Sample conversation:
“Are you coming down now?”
“No, me ‘n’ Jackie are waiting for Tiffany.”
“Wanna meet me at Chili’s tonight?”
“What time are you gonna be there?”
“Well, I gotta go to the store ‘n’ get my pictures before they close.”
“Well, just show up anyway. We’ll still be there.”
“Why dontcha call Steph and tell tell her to meet us?”
“Uh-uh, Steph doesn’t like Chili’s.”
“Hey, I know, let’s go to the Cheesecake Factory then!”
“Nuh-uh, they’re too expensive!”
etc., etc. Meanwhile, the combined blood pressure of everyone else on the elevator is high enough to give a whole continent cardiac arrest. Get on the elevator or be shoved down the shaft, nitwit!