'Dotard' Trump? The story of 'rocket man' Kim's insult
REUTERS
On Friday the English-speaking world was startled to find itself suddenly reacquainted with the 14th Century term "dotard", thanks to an unlikely source - Kim Jong-un.
The North Korean leader used the ancient word to describe Donald Trump several times in a fiery statement denouncing the US President's recent UN speech.
- North Korea crisis in 300 words (dotard is not one of them)
The statement was an unprecedented first person address to Mr Trump and as the diplomatic community digested its meaning, many others rushed to look up this unique insult.
Kim Jong Un calls Trump a mentally deranged U.S. dotard. Searches for 'dotard' are high as a kite. merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dot…
End of Twitter post by @MerriamWebster
Mr Kim used "dotard" not once, but twice, to refer to Mr Trump.
"Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say," Mr Kim wrote, displaying a keen sense of the original meaning of the word.
But he ended his screed with the ominous line: "I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire."
So what exactly does "dotard" mean?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "an old person, especially one who has become weak or senile".
Its US brethren, Merriam-Webster, further clarified that the word initially meant "imbecile", and stems from the Middle English word "doten" which means "to dote".
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The word has made guest appearances in literature over the years but rarely with kind intent: it's there in Shakespeare, in works by Herman Melville about the menace of a shark and in an angry poetic stream of consciousness by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, for example.
This wasn't the first time North Korea used the term (we'll get to that in a minute), but it certainly was the first instance it garnered so much attention.
Unsurprisingly the word has spawned its own hashtag #dotard, which has since trended worldwide.
SOURCE: BBC
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