booby

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a foolish or inept person; dated and insulting

   The impatient clerk dismissed his customer as a booby.

2. 2
   noun

   a large tropical seabird of the gannet family, often with brightly colored feet or bill

   A blue-footed booby nested on the rocky island.

Borrowed in the seventeenth century from Spanish bobo, 'foolish person,' probably ultimately related to Latin balbus, 'stammering.' The seabird was so named because sailors considered its tameness and clumsy movement foolish.

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