tumshie n. a stupid or foolish person. Etymological Note: Originally jocular or colloquial Scots for ‘turnip.’ Common insult tumshie-head and other comparisons of a head to a turnip probably preceded the stand-alone tumshie. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Penny in Savannah, Georgia, recalls that her father, a Navy veteran who served in the South Pacific, would say of someone who was clueless or didn’t know what he was talking about: That person doesn’t know if he’s punched, bored...
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...