# what's a maroon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 8, 1999, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907 "1999-12-08T20:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/1 "1999-12-08T20:10:00Z")
Ok, so I rented MST3000 the movie this weekend and it was pretty good, I had a good laugh, but a question comes up. Years ago I remember Bugs Bunny calling someone who wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed a maroon (sp?). I never understood that reference, but didn’t worry too much about it. Then they used it in the movie last night and now I’m curious; does anyone know the origin/meaning of this word, other than to say it’s a perjorative comment about a persons intelligence, Larry ---
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/2 "1999-12-08T20:19:00Z")
It’s a mispronounciation (or Brooklynization) of _moron_. * * * “Bodie, I noticed you stopped stuttering.” “I’ve been giving myself shock treatments.” “Up the voltage.” -_Real Genius_ ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/3 "1999-12-08T20:27:00Z")
And this from [www.onelook.com](http://www.onelook.com) Maroon: A runaway slave sent to the Calabouco, or place where such slaves were punished, as the Maroons of Brazil. Those of Jamaica are the offspring of runaways from the old Jamaica plantations or from Cuba, to whom, in 1738, the British Government granted a tract of land, on which they built two towns. The word is from the verb “maroon,” to set a person on an inhospitable shore and leave him there (a practice common with pirates and buccaneers). The word is a corruption of Cimarron, a word applied by Spaniards to anything unruly, whether man or beast. * * * “Some people are worried about the difference between right and wrong. I’m worried about the difference between wrong and fun.” ~P.J. O’Rourke~ ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/4 "1999-12-08T20:38:00Z")
“What’s a maroon?”, he asks! What a ta ra ra GOON de ay! (how do you make one of those smileys that let people know your just kidding? I feel like such an ultramaroon!) * * * Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht. ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/5 "1999-12-08T21:52:00Z")
Well, that clears that up, Larry ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/6 "1999-12-08T22:06:00Z")
You left out: im-bessile gulla-bull nin-cow-poop ---
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/7 "1999-12-08T22:14:00Z")
MacDonald’s sells 'em… But they call 'em “Macaroons” ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/8 "1999-12-08T23:05:00Z")
or…it could be a redish brown color close to wine or burgandy…right in the PMS range of 188 =) * * * “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good things.” --Edgar Degas ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 1999, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/9 "1999-12-08T23:07:00Z")
SaDkOrNyGuY ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/10 "1999-12-09T01:12:00Z")
I should’ve taken that left toin at Albuquoique. ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/11 "1999-12-09T12:02:00Z")
this is what I get for posting a question in mpsims even if it is mundane and pointless, thanks, Larry ---
**Author:** ![PatrickM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@PatrickM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickM)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/12 "1999-12-09T14:51:00Z")
Next topic: Why does succotash suffer? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/13 "1999-12-09T14:53:00Z")
In Butte, MT, the Catholic H.S. is Butte Central. Their team name is the Butte Central Maroons. (Or, baboons to their rival teams.) Meg ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/14 "1999-12-09T16:44:00Z")
It’s probably incredibly obvious, and I’m just too dense tonight to see it. Mjollnir, what does “SaDkOrNyGuy” mean? * * * Lyxdesics of the lowrd untie! ---
**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/15 "1999-12-09T16:46:00Z")
Kara, go to GQ, and you’ll find out soon enough. P.S. I did make that left toin at Albuquoique, and look what happened to me! * * * “That’s entertainment!” —Vlad the Impaler ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/16 "1999-12-09T16:59:00Z")
Separate out the capital letters and you get: akryuy’S DONG 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 1999, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/17 "1999-12-10T05:20:00Z")
Wasn’t there an old pro hockey team called the Montreal Maroons? Of course, that was probably meant in the same vein as St. Louis Browns or Cincinnati Reds. * * * Chaim Mattis Keller [cmkeller@compuserve.com](mailto:cmkeller@compuserve.com) “Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.” – Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective ---
**Author:** ![Ophanim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8491ac/32.png) [@Ophanim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ophanim)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 1999, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/18 "1999-12-10T06:01:00Z")
My ass smells like ass. I think that it’s Bugs Bunny’s fault. * * * This is HDTV, it has better resolution than the real world - Fry ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 1999, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-maroon/11907/19 "1999-12-10T22:21:00Z")
Old joke from Boys’ Life: ## “Did you hear about the ship full of red paint that collided with the ship full of purple paint? They were marooned.” “If ignorance were corn flakes, you’d be General Mills.” Cecil Adams _The Straight Dope_