dizzard

English

Etymology

Uncertain; perhaps from dizzy +‎ -ard. Compare dotard.

Noun

dizzard (plural dizzards)

1. (obsolete) A jester or fool.
2. (obsolete) An idiot.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , New York Review of Books, 2001, p.43:

     Lactantius, in his book of Wisdom, proves them to be dizzards, fools, asses, madmen, so full of absurd and ridiculous tenets and brain-sick positions, that to his thinking never any old woman doted worse.

   • 1902, John Kendrick Bangs, chapter 10, in Olympian Nights:

     "You're a dizzard!" I retorted. "And a noodle and a jolt-head; […] you're a Hatter!" I shrieked the last epithet.

Alternative forms

• dizard, disard

Derived terms

• dizzardly