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Hi, Grant - I enjoyed your history of the word 'knucklehead' but confess I was disappointed, too. I have always envisioned this word as deriving from what I would call 'a noogie' - that action typical of The Three Stooges when Moe would grab Larry's head under his arm and rub his knuckles back and forth across it as an expression of disgust and 'knuckleheadedness.' Do you think this is indeed related?
I'm not sure that Grant will actually reply to your question here, but I'll give my opinion (which, plus four dollars and twenty-five cents, will buy you a latte at Starbucks). I believe noogie was much later than knucklehead. My father and I used to watch The Three Stooges reruns every Sunday morning, and I don't recall Moe ever giving Larry or Curly (or the lesser -- in my opinion -- Shemp or Joe) "noogies" in the sense we understand it. However, he did often call each of them "knucklehead", which leads me to believe the word was in common slang use for a while before then. I cannot offer anything definitive, but I think your hypothesis might not hold up.
tunawrites - Merriam-Webster's online dictionary dates "Noogie" to 1972, but doesn't explain that date. Perhaps the date comes from this, noted in the OED:
"J. E. Lighter Hist. Dict. Amer. Slang cites a New York University student in 1972 as saying that a ‘noogie is a kind of a punch or a jab you give someone with your third and middle finger. You do it on the forehead or on the shoulder.'"
The OED has an example of the word in print in 1968, but the description of the action is slightly different:
1968 I. HOROVITZ Indian wants Bronx 11 Now I'll give you twenty noogies, so we'll be even. (He raps Joey on the R. arm.)
The OED also credits Saturday Night Live with popularizing the word.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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