dotard

English

Etymology

From Middle English dotard; equivalent to dote +‎ -ard.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdəʊ.təd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdoʊ.tɚd/, /ˈdoʊ.tɑɹd/
• Hyphenation: do‧tard

Noun

dotard (plural dotards)

1. (archaic) An old person with impaired intellect; one in their dotage.

   Synonyms: mimmerkin; see also Thesaurus:dotard

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 16:

     "Dotard," (said he) "let be thy deepe advise; / Seemes that through many yeares thy wits thee faile, / And that weake eld hath left thee nothing wise, / Else never should thy judgement be so frayle, / To measure manhood by the sword or mayle.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     I speak not like a dotard nor a fool, / As under privilege of age to brag / What I have done being young or what would do / Were I not old.

   • 1835, William Wordsworth, “The Pass of Kirkstone”, in A Guide through the District of the Lakes‎^[1]:

     Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields, / All that the fertile valley shields; / Wages of folly--baits of crime, / Of life's uneasy game the stake, / Playthings that keep the eyes awake / Of drowsy, dotard Time;—

   • 1867, W. S. Gilbert, "The Precocious Baby," The 'Bab' Ballads, Complete Edition, Philadelphia: David McKay, no date, p. 73, [2]

     He early determined to marry and wive, / For better or worse / With his elderly nurse, / Which the poor little boy didn't live to contrive: / His health didn't thrive— / No longer alive, / He died an enfeebled old dotard at five!

   • 2017 September 22, Kim Jong-un, quotee, “Statement of Chairman of State Affairs Commission of DPRK”, in KCNA Watch‎^[3]:

     Whatever [Donald J.] Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U. S. dotard with fire.

2. (archaic) One who dotes on another, showing excessive fondness; a doter.

Derived terms

• dotardism
• dotardly
• dotardness
• dotardy

 

Translations

old person with impaired intellect

• Bulgarian: изкуфял старец m (izkufjal starec)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 老糊塗／老糊涂 (zh) (lǎohútu)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Esperanto: kadukulo
• Finnish: vanhuudenhöperö (fi), höppänä
• French: radoteur (fr) m
• German: Seniler m (derogatory), Senile f (derogatory)
• Hungarian: trotty (hu), vén szivar
• Italian: bacucco (it) m
• Japanese: 老い耄れ (ja) (おいぼれ, oibore)
• Korean: 늙다리 (ko) (neukdari), 늙다리미치광이 (neukdarimichigwang'i)
• Norman: r'doteux m
• Persian: خرفت (fa) (xereft)
• Polish: ramol m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: маразма́тик (ru) m (marazmátik) (originally: patient suffering from senile dementia), ста́рый дура́к (stáryj durák)
• Spanish: chocho (es) m, gagá (es)
• Tagalog: ulyanin

See also

• doddard

References

• “dotard”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “dotard”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “dotard, n. and a.”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Further reading

• dotard at Google Ngram Viewer

Middle English

Etymology

From doten +‎ -ard.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔːtard/

Noun

dotard (plural dotardes)

1. A dotard; someone who displays senility.
   • 14th C., Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue," lines 285-92, [4]

     Thou seist, that oxen, asses, hors, and houndes, / They been assayed at diverse stoundes; / Bacins, lavours, er that men hem bye, / Spones and stoles, and al swich housbondrye, / And so been pottes, clothes, and array; / But folk of wyves maken noon assay / Til they be wedded; olde dotard shrewe! / And than, seistow, we wol oure vices shewe.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. A fool or simpleton; someone who displays stupidity.

Descendants

• English: dotard

References

• “dōtard, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-12.