So long ago that I can’t remember.
Probably sometimes in my teens and twenties (I’m 64 now). Mostly from reading, but I couldn’t tell you exactly from where. I occasionally use dotage as “I’m in my dotage” but don’t know if I’ve ever used dotard before.
No. Dennis annoys Mr. Wilson. McCain annoys Trump.
Browsing the forum and just reading the thread title, my first thought was, “Maybe…LOTRs?”
Which I read (along with the Hobbit) back when I was about 12 or 13 y/o.
I knew the word when I heard it used in the news recently, and knew its definition, but I haven’t used it myself, ever.
I’m another one who maybe/possibly also read it first in LOTRs which I first read ages ago, but it could be from something else as well. I was also surprised that so many did not know its definition.
//i\
I’m not positive but I think I encountered it in one of Mark Twain’s books. If so I would have been maybe nine or ten years old. Since I’m 77 now I’ve known that word for a long time but I don’t think I’ve ever used it. I was surprised that so many people haven’t encountered it.
I was pronouncing it correctly! Hurray!
I have read the word many times, probably dating back to my teens, but to this day, I don’t think I have ever heard it spoken.
It’s not a word I use, but I’m 63 and don’t remember a time when I didn’t know the word.
This coming winter will mark 50 years since I first read LOTR, fwiw. But I think I’d already encountered it by then.
So…McCain is…dumb ol’ Margaret?
Huh.
So just to be clear, Kim did not use the word “dotard,” correct? This was a Korean to English translation, and that particular word was used by the translator?
From some of the explanations in this thread, the substance of the insult or comment was that Trump is a cranky, senile, old bastard? Is that fair?
Correct.
I don’t know that I’ve ever used the word, but I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know what it meant.
Is “doddering” or “dottering” related? Perhaps people have heard that. I was shocked to hear newscasters say they hadn’t heard of it. Where do they find these people? 
IMO …
We’ve pretty well established that “dotage”, “doting”, “doddering”, and “dotty” are all related and commonly known and used by many/most 'Dopers.
We’ve also fairly well established that unless you’ve read LOTR or a couple of particular Shakespeare plays you’ve never encountered “dotard”. And of those who know the word, most have never heard it aloud nor ever used it themselves.
Which implies, at least to me, that it’s far more archaic than the other related usages.
According to this online English etymology dictionary, dotard is a 14th century word related to the verb ‘dote’ from ca. 1200 which then meant ‘act silly or deranged’ rather than its current meaning. It says dodder appeared in the 17th century from ME daderen ‘to tremble’.
I always assumed it was pronounced like daughter with “do” on the end. Many newscasters seemed to want to pronounce it DOE-tard to rhyme with RE-tard.
Also, the word ‘dotage’ appears on this list of the 58,000 most common English words. I guess a lot of people would understand ‘dotard’ based on ‘dotage’ (‘period of life in which a person is old and weak’), and the context, without having seen it specifically.
http://www.mieliestronk.com/wordlist.html
My mother (b. 1921) used it now and then. I always thought it just plain ol’ regular word for a stupid person, and maybe old.
Well, someone in North Korea used the word.
I can’t specifically remember learning it; my guess is that it would have been from some fantasy novel I read as a kid.
I first encountered the word as a teenager reading a libretto for The Barber of Seville. Count Almaviva called Doctor Bartolo a dotard for wanting to marry his love interest Rosina. Even back then I worked out that it means senile old man.
Never saw the word again as written. Although I believe I heard Paul Giamatti use it when he played John Adams being cranky at his 90th birthday party.