Search results
- a thoughtless, clueless oaf New York Times 2 : a big clumsy slow-witted person
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oaf
People also ask
How do you describe a clumsy oafish person?
How do you describe someone as oafish?
What are some examples of oafish behavior?
Is Zeus a oafish?
The English language has no shortage of ways to describe a clumsy, oafish person. From 'clodhopper' to 'stumblebum' to the classic 'klutz,' here are some of the best. Just watch your step on the way in.
If someone says you're oafish, they think you're mean, clumsy, and not very smart. Maybe it's the way you barreled into the classroom, knocking over a chair and not apologizing as you smacked people in the head with your backpack.
- Oaf
- Dolt
- SAP
- Boob
- Lubber
- Buffoon
- Bozo
- Bumpkin
- Rube
- Hick
The word oaf, first recorded in the early 1600s, originally referred to an ugly child that elves left behind to replace one they’d carried off, as Merriam Webster explains. Deriving from a Scandinavian root related to English’s elf, oafevolved from “changeling” to “stupid or clumsy person.”
A dolt is a “dull person”—quite literally so. It’s first found in the form doltish in the 1540s and appears to be related to dull and dold (“stupid, inert”), an obsolete past participial form of the verb to dull that might also be responsible for doldrums.
A sap, or “gullible person,” may have been shortened in the early 1800s from sapskull, or someone whose head is like sapwood, the soft, sap-conducting wood between a tree’s bark and the hard, inner timber.
In the early 1900s, it seems American English created the shorter boob from the much older booby (1600), which the great English lexicographer Samuel Johnson defined as a “dull, heavy, stupid fellow; a lubber.” While its ultimate origin is unclear, there are several theories. A leading one takes boob back to the Spanish bobo, “fool,” also used of s...
Speaking of lubber, this old-fashioned insult for a “big, clumsy fellow” goes all the way back to the 14th century. It might be from an even older Scandinavian-based lobi, “lazy lout,” or the French lobeor, “swindler, parasite.” Lubbers first mocked idle monks, so-called abbey-lubbers, before ridiculing inept sailors as landlubbers.
Send in the buffoons. In the late 16th century, a buffoon was a professional clown. The word ultimately comes from the Italian buffare, “to puff the cheeks,” a comic gesture, which became buffa (“a jest”) and then buffone(“jester”).
One of the most famous clowns in American culture was Bozo the Clown. The name Bozo may owe its rise to early 20th-century vaudeville acts, as word researcher Peter Reitan argues, but as for the origin of bozo itself? There are many theories. One suggests bozo comes from the Spanish bozal, a pejorative term used for slaves who couldn’t speak Spanis...
This word for a “rustic rube” first insulted Dutchmen as short, stumpy people. The word might be from the Dutch boomken, “little tree,” or bommekijn, “little barrel,” which resemble stumps.
Speaking of rubes, this bumpkin brethren comes from a shortened form of the given name Reuben, a biblical name commonly found among those who lived in the countryside. The derogatory Reuben is found in print in 1855; rube, in 1891.
Similar to Reuben/rube is hick, another derogatory term for a “provincial country person” that comes from a pet form of the name Richard. While hick is primarily found in American English today, it’s found in the written record as early as 1565. A 1702 use in Irishman Richard Steele’s comedy The Funeralmakes the meaning of hickquite clear: “Richard...
Oafish definition: clumsy and stupid; unmannered; loutish. See examples of OAFISH used in a sentence.
Synonyms of oaf. 1. : a stupid person : boob. a thoughtless, clueless oaf New York Times. 2. : a big clumsy slow-witted person. Get out of my way, you big oaf. oafish. ˈō-fish.
If you describe someone as oafish, you disapprove of their behaviour because you think that it is impolite, clumsy, or aggressive. [ disapproval ] The bodyguards, as usual, were brave but oafish.
adjective: Characteristic of or resembling an oaf; clumsy, stupid. Similar: loutish , boorish , swinish , unrefined , Neanderthal , oaflike , doofy , schlubby , foollike , oxlike , more...
