I was having a high brow literary discussion (not!) at dinner last night with a friend. We were discussing Bugs Bunny’s favorite perjorative - “What a maroon!”
We realized neither of us had a clue if that was a real expression, an expression made up for the cartoons, or perhaps even a bastardization of ‘moron’.
Anybody know?
What a tar ar ar goon de ay. I always thought it was Bugs’ way of saying Moron.
I have always assumed that it was “a bastardization of ‘moron’”.
I knew a person who insisted “fragile” was pronounced (if I can do it) “fra-ghi-lee”
According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, "maroon" (noun) is:
(1) a fugitive black slave of the West Indies and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries; also : a descendant of such a slave
(2) a person who is marooned
(3) a dark red
(1) would seem to indicate a racist undertone to the term, but perhaps that is just hearing it through the filter of 21st century P.C.-ness. Not that Warner Bros didn’t have plenty of overtly racist cartoons, but didn’t Bugs Bunny frequently use the term at the very white Elmer Fudd?
It must be Italian!
I doubt the first definition has anything to do with it. The OED primarily cites UK sources for the usage; the only US quote was from 1889, which means it is unlikely anyone at Warner Brothers had heard it. And, as you point out, Elmer Fudd was white.
It’s clearly intended to be a mispronunciation of “moron.”
Said about a bull during fight of same:
“What a gulla-bull. What a nin-cow-poop. What an im-bess-ill. What an ultra-maroon.”
Why do you think it was “Maroon Pictures” in Roger Rabbit? (In the book, it was the Maroon Brothers, identical (toon?) twins - modeled, of course, on no one in the actual film industry.
Definitely a mispronunciation of ‘moron’.
I recall mispronunciations were often used in comedies of the period; for example, The Bowery Boys.
That’s ‘ra-ra’, not ‘ar-ar’. 
Sounds like the same guy that wanted to surf at Banzai Pee-pay-lee-nay.
Making this a dialectic parody of a word that doesn’t exist in the first place. Those guys were such maroons. 
No, it’s Swahili; means “unbreakable”.
Just be careful with the deen-a-mite candles.
This thread is the epi-tome of mispronunciations!
That guy sounds like a real imbay-cheelay!
How would you classify Mr. Teatime then? (or the Doper I call Tay-ah-cah-kay?)
Yes, it’s going to be an epic tome!
You guys are all full of hyper-bowl.
Despite the banned cartoons I can’t make my brain accept that Bugs was a racist so -------- I’m going with the “badly pronounced” explanation.