doofus
/ˈduːfəs/ noun
Forms doofuses doofi dufus
- noun (slang, derogatory, sometimes affectionately, humorous) A person with poor judgment and taste; a foolish or silly person. “Danny is such a doofus!”
Synonyms
dingus boob dolt blockhead lowbrow oaf dimwit nitwit half-wit
Etymology
Pseudo-Latinism, possibly an alteration of earlier goofus (first attested in the 1920s) due to influence from Scots doof (“simpleton”). Scots doof is derived from Low German doof (“deaf”, with a secondary sense of “idiotic, stupid”). The Low German word is cognate with English deaf. By surface analysis, doof + Latin -us.
Some have proposed that dupe possibly played some kind of role in the development of doofus as well.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “doofus”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details