A colleague has just emailed me suggesting that the word "numpty" has
become non-PC because of its association with Downs syndrome. I've never
made that association ... Has anyone else?
A trawl of the standard "references" suggests that numpty is a Scottish
slang word (meaning 'idiot' or 'incompetent person') and is being
considered fro inclusion in the next edition of the OED; but
interestingly its total absence from the BNC suggests either that it has
only recently entered the language, and/or that Scottish English is
under-represented in the BNC.
Would I be right in thinking that the word is entirely unknown in AmE?
On a similar theme, I was thinking about the word "benny", a slang term
which had a brief life in BrE. With the same meaning as numpty, its
etymology is a character in a soap (Crossroads I think) called Benny who
was "intellectually challenged". I seem to remember a news article
during the Falklands War in which soldiers were being admonished because
their slang word for Falkland Islanders was "bennies".
"A benny" occurs twice in the BNC, both times in the same source (KCE -
a conversation recorded by `Helena' (PS0EB)) as follows:
KCE 7007 so she had a bit of a benny it was
KCE 7260 I hadn't had a benny for a few days actually
Helena also talks about "bennies":
KCE 7258 Not that I ever have major bennies or anything
I'm guessing that here she means a "benzedrine" tablet, though that
interpretation doesn't really fit the syntax (a bit of a benny, major
bennies). Anyone any idea what a benny is in this context? (Perhaps the
surrounding text can help - what is the topic of the conversation?).
There's one other occurrence of "bennies" in the BNC, from "Skinhead" by
Nick Knight, the meaning of which I think is "Ben Sherman shirts"
ARP 213 Most skinhead girls, sometimes called rennes, would wear
bennies, button-fly red tags, white socks and penny loafers or monkey
boots.
Harold Somers
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