jobbernowl

English

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], compare French jobard (“gullible, crazy”) and English noll (“head”).

Noun

jobbernowl (plural jobbernowls)

1. A person's head, particularly if misshapen or blocky.
   • a 1693, Thomas Urquhart and Peter Anthony Motteux, translators, of François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, original published 1532, volume 2 (p. 685 of 2009 BiblioBazaar publication):

     [She...] bathed his jobbernowl thrice in the fountain; then threw a handful of meal on his phiz [...]

   • 1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood: a romance, volume 2, Carey, Lea & Blanchard, page 111:

     His toggery was that of a member of the prize ring – what we now call a “belcher” bound his throat – a spotted fogle bandaged his jobbernowl, and shaded his right peeper, while a white beaver crowned the occiput of the Magus.

   • 1868, William Conant Church, “The Ballad of Sir Ball,”, in The Galaxy,, volume 5, page 329:

     He stood on the backs of his brace of hacks, in equitation foul; / And either donkey wore what seemed a human jobbernowl.

   • 2006, Pamela Aidan, Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman, Simon and Schuster, page 266:

     Trenholme groaned softly in the background, eliciting a sharp command from his brother to “shut his jobbernowl.”

2. A stupid person; a blockhead:
   • 1902, John Kendrick Bangs, Olympian Nights, Harper & brothers publishers, page 185:

     “And a noodle and a jolt-head; you’re a jobbernowl and a doodle, a maundering mooncalf and a block-headed numps, a gaby and a loon; you’re a Hatter!” I shrieked the last epithet.

   • 1906, Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat (p. 189 of 2001 publication by Tuttle Publishing):

     That he pays not the least regard to the requirements of convention marks him out as either a superior soul or a rightdown jobbernowl.

   • 1953, Roger MacDougall, Escapade: a play in three acts,, Heinemann, page 24:

     STELLA: [...] You’re a – a jobbernowl! / JOHN (arrested): A what? / STELLA (reluctantly): Jobbernowl.

   • 1999, Henry Mitchell, Allen Lacy, Henry Mitchell on Gardening, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 79:

     When I discovered I could grow it here — I like to say any jobbernowl can — I was as pleased as a dog with two tails.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:idiot

References

• “jobbernowl”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “jobbernowl”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.