different between doofus vs pinhead

English

Alternative forms

• dufus

Etymology

Perhaps 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”), which has a secondary sense: "idiotic". The Low Saxon word is cognate with English deaf.

Some have proposed that perhaps dupe played some kind of role in the development of doofus as well.

Goofus appears to be a fanciful extension of goof, perhaps taking its ending from ignoramus. Goof likely originated as an alteration of the (now obsolete) English goff ("a clown")—compare English geek, which originated as an alteration of geck ("simpleton")—but any of its history prior to that is up for debate, and difficult to precisely trace.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -u?f?s
• IPA^(key): /?du?f?s/

Noun

doofus (plural doofuses or doofi)

1. (slang) A person with poor judgment and taste.

   Stocks Genius or Dot-Com Doofus? – Wired News

   Danny is such a doofus!

   • 1998, Ann Rule, In the Name of Love, in In the Name of Love and Other True Cases: Ann Rule's Crime Files Volume 4, page 185,

     Nichols had called Bonilla a doofus who was too damn stupid to realize that he was being taken by a hooker with a convincing sob story.

     Even if Steve was a doofus, Nichols and Rand were quite willing to work for him as long as he had money.

   • 2005 October 17, Kevin Amorin, Mewsday, quoted in 2007, Troth Wells, T-Shirt, page 14,

     Being too young to attend a show on Bowie's 1983 Serious Moonlight tour, I did what any underage doofus would do. I bought a concert T-shirt – three-quarter-length blue sleeves, image of Major Tom himself on the front.

   • "That's doofi, Krakauer. Sorry to correct you."

Synonyms

• (person with poor judgement and taste): boob, dolt, blockhead, lowbrow, oaf

Related terms

• doof
• doofy

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• pin-head
• pin head

Etymology

pin +? head

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?n.h?d/

Noun

pinhead (plural pinheads)

1. The head of a pin. (Frequently used in size comparisons.)
   • 1810, Thomas Thomson, A System of Chemistry, Vol. 4, Bell & Bradfute, page 602:

     The moment the nitre was red hot, the coal, previously reduced to small pieces of the size of a pinhead, was projected in portions of one or two grains at a time…

2. (slang) An ignorant, naive, foolish, or stupid person.

   Synonyms: doofus, dumbbell, dunce; see also Thesaurus:idiot
3. (slang) A telemark skier.
4. (slang, medicine) A human head that is unusually tapered or small, often due to microcephaly, or a person with that trait. Often promoted in freak shows as "human pinheads".
   • 1939, Amram Scheinfeld and Morton David Schweitzer, You and Heredity, Frederick A. Stokes Co., page 155:

     The microcephalic idiot is an unfortunate with a "pinhead," sometimes exhibited as a "what's-it" in circus side-shows, whose mental age never goes beyond that of an imbecile.

   • 1943, Oliver Ramsay Pilat, Sodom by the Sea: An Affectionate History of Coney Island, Garden City Publishing, page 187:

     Zip the What-Is-It was simply a Negro idiot. […] For half an hour at a time, David Belasco used to watch Zip at Coney Island. The producer insisted he saw signs of intelligence in the pinhead […]

5. (slang, pet stores) A newborn cricket used as food for pets.
   • 1994, Raymond E. Hunziker, Leopard Geckos, Publisher, ?ISBN, page 16:

     A newly hatched gecko will need pretty small crickets, but you will not have to go all the way down to pinheads.

   • 2000, Manny Rubio, Scorpions: Everything About Purchase, Care, Feeding, and Housing, Barron's Educational Series, ?ISBN, page 70:

     Crickets can be purchased in many sizes from newborns ("pinheads") to adults.

6. (mycoculture) The immature juvenile fruiting body of a mushroom prior to its gills opening.

Derived terms

• count angels on pinheads
• pinhead oatmeal

Related terms

• pinheaded

Translations

Anagrams

• hand pie, headpin