I was reading the bible recently, and said the first leader of the world was named “Nimrod”. Though not too familiar to me in terms of insults, I do know it usually means slow or stupid; not exactly world leader material. What my question is was this insult originally used to be ironic, or was it based upon another word?
One interesting story you can take or leave:
Bugs Bunny used to in addressing or referring to Elmer Fudd, and it sounded insulting or ironic when he did it, probably intentionally. However, one attribute of the biblical Nimrod is “mighty hunter”, which is probably what the Bugs Bunny writers were latching onto. People picked it up as a general purpose insult from the cartoons.
I’ve always been mystified by this, since the historical significance of “Nimrod” as a mighty hunter should make it a cool name, like Yaeger, or Deathstalker, or some such thing.
This site claims “nimrod=numbskull” predates Bugs Bunny, referring to a Random House entry (probably this one) that is also vague on the subject.
Maybe the word just lends itself to sarcastic intonation in American English.
OK, LEAVE it then, though Bugs Bunny probably did a lot to popularize the usage … it probably does help that the word just SOUNDS funny, and vaguely vulgar because it contains “rod”. Sort of like working references to “kumquats” into things. Nothing is particularly hilarious about the fruit itself, but it’s hard to say it without giggling.
While I’m sure we have done this more than once, it easier on the server to do this.
There is a cite from 1932, which is taken from Great Magoo a play written by Ben Hecht, famous screenwriter. It says “He’s in love with her. That makes about the tenth. The same old Nimrod. Won’t let her alone for a second.” This from Lighter.
The second cite in LIghter is from 1934, de Leon & Jones, You’re Telling Me a film from that year. Written by Walter de Leon and Paul Jones. The exact cite was “LIttle too much whip in that club, Nimrod.” While I can’t say for sure, I believe W…C. Fields spoke that line in the movie.
The Bugs cartoon is given credit by everyone who knows, with popularizing the term to mean a “jerk.”
Well, maybe “jerk” isn’t quite the equivalent. In the quoted context, a person who is a “nimrod” sounds more like an obsessive type, focussing intently on a target or task with little regard for all the sarcasm and disaster around them. We have such people here on SDMB. Soner or later, someone opens up a pit thread calling them a “one-trick pony”.
The nimrod equivalent might therefore be “martinet”, “beaurocrat”, or “anal retentive.”
I work for an Israeli company. One of our best engineers is named Nimrod. It’s sort of a bad coincidence, though, as he’s one of the smartest guys I’ve met.
I was all set to disagree with you Bryan, but then I realized that this guy is ridiculously anal-retentive.
Actually, Nimrod is a very common Israeli first name, and a pretty “cool” one at that. It’s generally pronounced “neem-RODE.”
It has no negative associations whatsoever.
This reminds me of a Conan O’Brien interview with Mariska Hargitay. She mentioned her brother, Zoltan (apparantly a super-tough-guy name in Hungary) and O’Brien though he sounded like a Republic Serial Villian.
“So, how’s his takeover of Earth coming along?”
Might I suggest a vaguely related term as a parallel example?
“Podunk” probably meant “good fishing spot” in one of the hundreds of dialects of Algonquian. It probably got applied to the tribe in Connecticut which controlled such a fishing spot. Said tribe happened to meet Adrian Block on a mapping voyage from Europe in the early 1600s, traded furs for wampum and smallpox, and within a hundred years the tribe (or more likely subsidiary band) got tagged with that misinterpretation and was nearly forgotten except as defined as a part of the country not currently occupied by very many people.
And for nearly three hundred years, the term “Podunk” was used as a term to describe someplace or someone three inches off the map of bum-f–k Egypt.
Today, nearly the same place is quite happening, if you’ve got the cash to blow. But the new natives hate it. Is there no justice? Some would whisper, “yes, you swamp-yankee bastards!”
So here’s to Podunk, baby! Where’s my gin and tonic?
Try that again: Podunk.
Oops. Podunk means “swamp.” Sorry.
Alessan:
Please tell me you’re kidding.
What next? Pharaoh? Sichon? Og? Nebucadnezzar?
Sheesh, those secular Israelis…
One of the RAF’s aircraft classes is also named the Nimrod.
And then of course it’s the name of one of my all-time favourite pieces of music, by Elgar…
Of course the Nimrod is a maritime patrol aircraft – a submarine hunter.
Warrior names, Chaim… warrior names. Nimrod may have given Abraham a hard time (frankly, I remember next to nothing about the story), but he was still a great hunter, fighter and ruler. For the past 30 years or so Israelis have been trying to avoid names that seem too “diaspora”, instead using more modern, active - yet still Hebrew - sounding names.
Besides, this wouldn’t be the first time that Jews name their kids after figures with less than perfect moral character - Yoav, Avner and Amnon are all fairly common.
I think “Nimrod” was used as a euphemism for someone you don’t like (not necessarily a stupid person, although that is what it came to mean for many people) simply because it is a well-established name (if not totally familiar to most people anymore in these secular days). It also has the same stress and cadence as “asshole”, so it can be used as a substitute (if not a particularly close one). It’s the same for “dipstick” being a euphemism for “dipshit”, something you can use in relatively polite company, or on TV.
FWIW, some people evidently think that “Nimrod” is derived from the name of the Assyrian king “Tukulti Ninurta”, although exactly why isn’t clear to me. Because he was an Assyrian king, and the name sounds sorta kinda similar, I guess. See Asimov’s Guide to the Bible and Julian Jaynes’ The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (and references therein).
I thought I’d point out something: for one reason or another, many people over the years have believed that Nimrod was the builder of the Tower of Babel. Why? I odn’t know- the Bible certainly doesn’t say he was, and there’s no good reason to think he was. Then again, there’s NO good reason to think Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, but people widely assume she was.
Anyway, because Nimrod was widely BELIEVED to be the fool responsible for the Tower of Babel fiasco, there may have been those who regarded the mighty hunter Nimrod as a pompous clod who tried to play God. Hence, in some circles, “Nimrod” may have come to mean “fool” long before Bugs Bunny popularized the notion.
Incidentally, if you’ve ever seen John Huston’s movie, “The Bible,” there’s an unintentionally hilarious scene, in which Richard Harris (I think) arrogantly cries out,
“AM I NOT NIMROD?”
I saw this movie in the theater as a 5 or 6 year old, and that line cracked me up (I associated the word with Bugs Bunny and ELmer FUdd, even then). Still does.