numptorium n. the building used by the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, or by extension, the parliament itself. Etymological Note: Scots numpty ‘a stupid person’ + Latin -orium ‘a building or place where an activity occurs or a (type of) thing is located.’ (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...
What an irony that all the sources for this phrase should be genuine “numpties”! Hickey is a anonymous and possibly fictitious columnist, specialising in “sweaty sock” type hatred of the Scots. Jason Allardyce’s loathing for local democratic control extends to having published a map showing the best place to launch mortars at the Parliament, and George Kerevan is a self-loathing former nationalist who now pens Thatcherite hymns to business-at-all cost politics for the peculiarly anti-Scottish newspaper “The Scotsman”. There’s an unholy alliance between rabid right-wing press barons and rabid independence-or-nothing nationalists in Scotland, neither of whom ever wanted a Parliament. The only things they have in common is a hatred of democracy and an extraodinary access to the media. True numpties. (note: this is not a defence of the current Lib/Lab administration, merely the process of local political control)