Washington Post - In the latest war of words between the United States and North Korea, Kim Jong Un did not pull any punches.
But he may have pulled out an old dictionary.
“I
will surely and definitely tame the deranged U.S. dotard with fire,” he
declared in an unusually direct and angry statement published Thursday
by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.
... Kim’s use of “dotard” was what raised eyebrows, prompting people around the world to Google the old-time insult.
Merriam-Webster
defines the noun as “a person in his or her dotage,” which is “a state
or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and
alertness.”
... The word meant “imbecile” when it was
first used in the 14th century and comes from the Middle English world
“doten,” meaning “to dote,” according to Merriam-Webster.
The
word was used by Chaucer in “The Canterbury Tales,” and it appeared
numerous times in William Shakespeare’s work, including “The Merchant of
Venice” and “King Lear.”
The world itself has become largely forgotten.
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