# When did you first add the word "dotard" to your vocabulary? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2017, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031 "2017-09-23T11:26:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/21 "2017-09-23T16:40:08Z")
Was “dotard” used in the news on TV ? I am asking b/c it never showed up on my CC , crap CC sucks ! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/22 "2017-09-23T16:40:23Z")
I think maybe Agatha Cristie used in a book. I have no cite, it’s been a while. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/23 "2017-09-23T17:23:37Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > (Incidentally, given his level of maturity and tact, I’ve gotten into the habit of referring to President Trump as Donald the Menace.) > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I doubt I’ll be adding this word to my active vocabulary. Donald the Menace on the other hand is gold. That’s a keeper. So, does that make John McCain old Mr. Wilson? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/24 "2017-09-23T17:44:40Z")
I know I was out of the country awhile, but I am honestly surprised “dotard” is such a mystery to anyone. Has it really been out of use for such a long time? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/25 "2017-09-23T17:47:44Z")
Dotage and dotty have been in my vocabulary since my teens but I don’t think I’ve ever heard dotard until now. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/26 "2017-09-23T17:58:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I know I was out of the country awhile, but I am honestly surprised “dotard” is such a mystery to anyone. Has it really been out of use for such a long time? Yes, I had never heard of it until this week but I could figure out roughly what it means just by the assumed sound. I don’t think it was ever in common use at all. I have never heard anyone ever actually use it but I will be using it all the time now. I know a whole bunch of old retards and, the beauty of it is, that they won’t even know what I am talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/27 "2017-09-23T18:11:21Z")
I’ve long known the word (at least by 6th grade, prolly earlier than that) and thought it was strange that so many recently indicated they did not. But then I’ve been caught off-guard several times by whole groups of people when I used words like “curmudgeon” and “bailiwick” and “philanthropy” in public, so what do I know about what words other people know? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/28 "2017-09-23T18:16:44Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Yes, I had never heard of it until this week but I could figure out roughly what it means just by the assumed sound. I don’t think it was ever in common use at all. I have never heard anyone ever actually use it but I will be using it all the time now. I know a whole bunch of old retards and, the beauty of it is, that they won’t even know what I am talking about. I dispute that it was not in common use in recent times. But I guess it really has been awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/29 "2017-09-23T18:51:52Z")
I never heard it until the other day, and I still won’t be adding it to my vocabulary 😊. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/30 "2017-09-23T19:06:22Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Dotage and dotty have been in my vocabulary since my teens but I don’t think I’ve ever heard dotard until now. That’s me to. As well as “Dote on” to mean make a grandparental fuss over. When I first read this thread I assumed that dotard, like libtard, was a fresh coinage meant specifically to insult. Perhaps a combo of Homer Simpson’s trademark D’oh! and -tard as short for retarded = mentally deficient person. My mental pronunciation was “doe-TARD” to match. I now suspect the correct pronunciation is more like “DOT-herd” or “DOT-erd” or even “DOT-\rd” You have to admit D’oh-tard is a pretty apt term for our own Dear Leader. He’s not real well-informed and is continually slapping his figurative forehead as he learns some new fact then blusters his way into convincing no-one but himself that he already knew all that stuff and had been planning accordingly all along. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/31 "2017-09-23T19:17:03Z")
I think it came up once on a "Word of the Day"app a few years ago, but I don’t recall ever seeing it used in context. But I’ve read a ton of stuff over the years, and it could be one of those words where I figured out its meaning \*in situ \*, but never committed it to memory. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/32 "2017-09-23T20:13:07Z")
I knew the word, but thought it was spelled “doddard,” related to “doddering.” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/33 "2017-09-23T20:21:39Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I think it depends how wide your reading is. A dotard is someone who is in his dotage. I’ve known both words for 45+ years. Yes, my father had all his 19-century British fiction books from college, so since I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/34 "2017-09-23T20:28:15Z")
Right now when reading the OP, if it sticks. Not my first language though. ---
**Author:** ![Dobbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Dobbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dobbs)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/35 "2017-09-23T20:49:55Z")
I thought I had come across the word (or at least a form of it) too many years ago to count. It seems there is an unrelated word, dodder. Having heard, but never seeing written, the phrase ‘doddering old man’, made me think I understood what a dotard was. > **[Definition of dodder | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dodder)** > > Dodder definition, to shake; tremble; totter. See more. > **[Definition of doddering | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/doddering)** > > Doddering definition, shaky or trembling, as from old age; tottering: a doddering old man. See more. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/36 "2017-09-23T21:49:33Z")
I have a degree in journalism and worked in communications for my entire career. I had absolutely no memory of either seeing of hearing that word before this week. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/37 "2017-09-23T22:01:37Z")
Learned it in the early70s. Mom would sit mke down with a copy of Readers Digest’s _Improve Your Vocabulary_ feature, & if I got them all right, she’d buy me a comic book. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/38 "2017-09-23T22:12:35Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > I imagine I’d heard it earlier — I’m pretty sure Shakespeare must have used it — but this is probably the first time the term really registered with me as well: _‘Dotard! What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among the dogs?’_ > -Saruman to Théoden, _The Two Towers_(Incidentally, given his level of maturity and tact, I’ve gotten into the habit of referring to President Trump as Donald the Menace.) FWIW, Théoden’s response is also classic, even somewhat relevant to current events, but I can’t do justice to it from faulty memory only, and I can’t find my copy of _The Two Towers_ just now – a little help, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/39 "2017-09-23T22:38:21Z")
Pardon, I am confused. The quote given above is Saruman’s rejoinder to the quote I was asking for help on. That response by Théoden was to a prior offer of peace by Saruman. The missing quote is a most elegantly worded statement of “kiss my ass.” Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031/40 "2017-09-23T22:42:28Z")
> [@](#): > > “We will have peace,” said Theoden at last, and some of his men cried out gladly. “We will have peace when you and all your works have perished! You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor. When you hang from a gibbet at your window for the sport of your own crows, I will have peace with you and Orthanc. I fear your voice has lost its charm.” That’s the line that prompted the Dotard speech. I remember learning the word when I first read LOTR in the seventies. Currently, I frequently blame mistakes I make on the fact that I am “in my dotage.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-add-the-word-dotard-to-your-vocabulary/797031.md?page=3)