For as long as people have been speaking the English language, theyve been deploying it

to poke fun at one another. Let's dig a little deeper into the grab bag of insults that language
has bequeathed us throughout history, and find out where those terms come from.
1. WAZZOCK
Wazzock was a particularly prevalentand particularly loutishinsult in the 1990s. At the
time, "lad culture" ran throughout British music and television, and wazzock, a North-
England accented contraction of the sarcastic wiseacre (a know-it-all) became a powerful
tool to shoot people down in an argument.
2. LUMMOX
Though the etymology of lummox is heavily disputed, one thing is for certain: It came from
East Anglia, the coastal outcrop of Britain above London. There, around 1825, someone
threw out the word as an insult, and it stuck, becoming a typically British go-to term. Some
linguists believe it comes from the word lummock, which typified a lummox: it means a
clumsy oaf.
3. SKIVER
Skivers and shirkers are one and the same. Someone who manages to duck under any
responsibility and loaf around, doing very little, is a skiver. The origins of this particular insult
are contested: some think its from an Old Norse wordskifameaning slice, whereby the
worker slices off as much work as possible.
4. MINGER
Often hurled at the opposite sex, to call someone a minger is to say they are objectively
unattractive. Though etymologists struggle to agree where the word came from, it seems
likely that it stems from the Old Scots word meng, meaning sh**. We didnt say it was pretty.
5. NINCOMPOOP
For such a colloquial word, nincompoop actually has a very learned past. Samuel Johnson,
the compiler of Englands first proper dictionary, claims the word comes from the Latin
phrase non compos mentis (not of right mind), and was originally a legal term.
6. PILLOCK
As words are used more regularly, the laziness of pronunciation can often warp them
slightly. So it was with pillock. Originally pillicock (a Norwegian slang word for penis), the
word has since been condensed to plain old pillockthough its meaning remains.
7. CLOD HOPPER
According to the brilliant Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, dating back to 1811 and compiled by
Captain Francis Grose, a clod hopper refers to a country farmer or ploughmanwith the
implication nowadays that youre slow witted and bumbling.
8. DUNAKER
Groses Dictionary of vulgarities is a rich seam of overlooked insults. In the 200 years since
it was published, there have been several terms that have fallen out of favor. One of them is
dunaker, a common thief of cows and calves.
9. GIT
By calling someone a git, youre invoking the old Scots word get, which means "bastard."
When it came down south of the border, it lost its harsh vowel sound and became
something softer, albeit with the required spikiness in.