booby

booby¹ fool; seabird

Etymology

The word for a fool, and for the seabird, is probably borrowed from Spanish bobo (“stupid; a fool”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Latin balbus (“stammering”),^{[2][6][7][3][8]} which is of imitative origin.^[7][3][2] The Spanish word was used both of a fool and of the seabird,^[4][5][3] and the American Heritage Dictionary explains the bird's name by how easily it can be caught when it lands on a ship at sea.^[7] Merriam-Webster relates the Latin adjective to babulus (“babbler”) and to babble,^[6][9] and Klein derives it from an imitative base Proto-Indo-European *balb-.^[10] The revised OED (2018) calls the origin uncertain: it thinks the senses fool, seabird and the later carriage and cell may be three words of separate origin, takes the sense of a foolish person as probably a nursery word, comparing babe, baby and bubby, and sees the Spanish word, a noun for a fool from before 1490 and for the bird from before 1557, only behind the seabird, comparing Spanish pájaro bobo (“stupid bird”).^[11] It notes that Booby was the name of a clown in George Peele's “Old Wives Tale” (1595) and that Nashe names a “Hankin Booby” (1596), probably a song or dance, that the word is apparently not connected with German Bube (“boy”), and that it apparently occurs as a surname from 1379.^[11] Dictionary.com instead derives it from an earlier pooby, apparently a blend of poop, to befool, and baby, with the Spanish word as an influence on the bird's name.^[12] Weekley allowed either an imitative origin or the Latin word, which he said comes to the same thing,^[13] and Johnson (1755) called its etymology uncertain, listing Skinner's derivation from the Spanish.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A childish, foolish or blundering person: about 1600, in the play Club Law.^[11] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s,^[2] Dictionary.com to 1590–1600,^[12] and Merriam-Webster gives 1602.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The name of the seabird is recorded from 1625, in Purchas's Pilgrimes;^[11] the Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid 17th century.^[4] In English regional speech a booby was also a child who cries easily,^[11] and the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Devon for an idle fellow or a big child given to crying.^[15] Green's Dictionary of Slang has the adjective, stupid, from 1679.^[16] From 1844 (by 1825 in Etymonline) a booby was the dunce of a class,^[11][2] which gave the booby prize for the loser of a game, recorded by 1884,^[2] which North Americans shortened to booby from 1886.^[11] A booby trap was at first a schoolboy prank and is recorded in a political figurative sense by 1832; the deadly sense is attested in 1917, during the German retreat in the First World War.^[2] The booby hatch was a hatch cover on merchant ships from 1840, and an asylum by 1936.^[2] In New England the word also named a closed horse-drawn sleigh (1841), and in Australian slang, from 1899, a cell or prison.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1600 – a childish, foolish or blundering person.^[11]
• 1625 – a tropical seabird of the genus Sula.^[11]
• 1747 – verb, to act in a foolish or blundering way.^[11]
• 1785 – to beat the booby, to slap oneself to keep warm (obsolete by 1898).^[11]
• 1841 – US, a horse-drawn sleigh with a closed body.^[11]
• 1844 – the dunce of a class.^[11] Etymonline dates this sense to 1825.^[2]
• 1886 – short for booby prize.^[11]
• 1899 – Australian slang, a cell or prison.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. An awkward or foolish person; a dope or dunce: Only a booby would leave the gate open in a storm.^[17][6][11]
2. Any of several large tropical seabirds of the genus Sula, related to the gannet.^[17][6][11]
3. (British) The player who loses or does worst in a game or group.^[17][6]
4. Any of several American ducks, especially the ruddy duck.^[6][9]

Verb

1. To behave in a foolish or blundering way.^[11]

Word family

• boobyish
• booby-trap
• booby prize
• booby hatch

booby² breast

Etymology

The word for the breast is an alteration from English of bubby,^{[11][6][4][5][12]} which the American Heritage Dictionary gives only as a possible source.^[7] The OED takes bubby, recorded from about 1660, as probably a nursery word imitating the sound of sucking,^[11] and Merriam-Webster likewise calls it perhaps imitative of a sucking infant.^[6] Etymonline relates the plural to bubby and suggests either Latin pupa (“little girl”), used in child talk for the breast, or a natural English formation, comparing French poupe (“teat”) and dialectal German Bubbi.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman's breast, usually in the plural: 1865, in the soldiers' verses “The Love Feast”, published in 1994.^[16] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1916,^[6] and the OED's first quotation is from before 1934, in Nell Kimball's memoir of life as an American madam.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Green's Dictionary of Slang calls the sense originally American,^[16] and the Shorter Oxford labels it slang, originally US, from the mid 20th century.^[4] Etymonline speaks of an older boobies of the late 17th century,^[2] the time when bubby is first recorded.^[11] The shorter boob, recorded by 1929, is probably shortened from it.^[11][2]

Timeline

• 1865 – a woman's breast, usually in the plural.^[16] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1916, the OED to before 1934.^[6][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang) A woman's breast; usually in the plural.^[4][11][6]