# Yankee Doodle

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle/100428>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 27, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle/100428 "2002-03-27T19:01:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Haplo781](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9d8465/32.png) [@Haplo781](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haplo781)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle/100428/1 "2002-03-27T19:01:11Z")

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Regarding the use of the word “Doodle” in “Yankee Doodle,” I was told in elementary school by one of those folks who comes by to do an assembly once a year that “Doodle” was a general insult along the lines of “nimrod” or “spaz” or “doodie-head.”

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle/100428/2 "2002-03-27T19:04:30Z")

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Hi, and welcome! A link to the column is appreciated.

[What’s the song “Yankee Doodle” all about?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myankeedoodle.html)

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle/100428/3 "2002-03-28T00:56:18Z")

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While the origin of _doodle_ is unknown, it almost certainly was not a nice thing to call someone in the mid-to-late 1700’s.

The OED cites it in 1628 with a meaning of a fool or idiot. And by 1785 it was in a dictionary of the **Vulgar Tongue** as “a silly fellow, or noodle…Also a child’s penis.”