dodo

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“
One imagines that they are as extinct as the dodo, and suddenly, if one goes to England, one finds them swarming.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A large, clumsy, flightless bird (Raphus cucullatus), formerly of the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, that has been extinct since the late 17th century.
  2. noun Informal One who is out-of-date, as in dress or ideas.
  3. noun Informal A stupid person; an idiot.

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Examples (50)

  • And I talk about the dodo, and how the dodo became extinct, and then I talk about Spinoza. —  Maira Kalman, the illustrated woman
  • "As the last dodo was dying, Spinoza was looking for a rational explanation for everything, called eudemonia. —  Maira Kalman, the illustrated woman
  • Just as the dodo is extinct, just as the whale was hunted to near extinction, we are about to lose our sturgeon and salmon. —  Destroyer 106: White Water
  • Women everywhere celebrate as sexism is at last declared to be as dead as racism or the dodo, before its reconstruction. —  Asimov's SF, July 2007
  • He looks decidedly weary, and, could he but speak, he would probably vote existence a bore and the creole a beast, and bewail the days of his youth, before a man's footsteps and a man's smells defiled the island, when he and the dodo were the leaders of Mauritian society. —  Diary of a Soldier of Fortune
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Portuguese dodó, alteration of obsolete Dutch dodors : Dutch dot, tuft of feathers + obsolete Dutch ors, tail (from Middle Dutch ærs; see ors- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Portuguese doudo, a dodo, from doudo, doido, a simpleton, a fool, from doudo, doido, adjective, simple, foolish. According to Diez, this word, which is unknown in Spanish, came from England (?): English dial. (Devon) dold, stupid, confused: see dolt. Cf. booby, a bird so named for a similar reason. The bird was also named by the Dutch (1) walgh-vogel, now walg-vogel, literally ‘nauseous bird’; also (2) dod-aers, literally ‘deadarse,’ “propter fœdam posterioris partis crassitiem” (note dated 1626), or because of some resemblance to the dabchick or little grebe, which was also so called; also (3) dronte (later Danish dronte = Swedish dront); origin unknown. The New Latin name is didus, Spanish dido: see Didus.
 

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/ˈdoʊdoʊ/
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