doodle
/ˈdud(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.29 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Mrs. Sneak. Why doodle! jackanapes! harkee, who am I? Sneak. Come, don't go to call names: am I? vhy my vife, and I am your master."
- "Perceval. Weep on! weep on! thou flouted loon, Weep on! weep on! thou gowky doodle!"
- "Courtier, it was thine to bow — Great Arthur he, and Doodle thou!"
- "His doodle hung as limp as last month's celery."
- "Her favorite had been when she'd convinced the lascivious guards that Dinah's red hair meant she was a witch, and if they molested her, their doodles would shrivel up between their legs and fall off. Daisy had assured her that no man would risk losing his doodle."
- "All of Dwight's parts wandered, especially his doodle. He had the wandering-est doodle in three states. His doodle had its own set of legs. His doodle was hardly at home. Heck, according to rumor Dwight Farris's doodle was hardly ever in his pants."
Etymology
Originally dialectal, from Low German dudeldopp (“simpleton”). Influenced by dawdle. Compare also German dudeln (“to play (the bagpipe)”). The word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton. German variants of the etymon include Dudeltopf, Dudentopf, Dudenkopf, Dude and Dödel. American English dude may be a derivation of doodle. The meaning "fool, simpleton" is intended in the song title "Yankee Doodle", originally sung by British colonial troops prior to the American Revolutionary War. This is also the origin of the early eighteenth century verb to doodle, meaning "to swindle or to make a fool of". The modern meaning emerged in the 1930s either from this meaning or from the verb "to dawdle", which since the seventeenth century has had the meaning of wasting time or being lazy.
Word Breakdown
- Root: dudeldopp
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdud(ə)l/
- British English: /ˈduːdl̩/