Have you been looking for new and creative ways to insult people? While you already have plenty of words to choose from, you could add hooplehead to your verbal repertoire.
This word is used to tell someone that they're not that bright, and if you'd like to learn more about its meaning and origin, you are in the right place.
Meaning
Hooplehead, which can also be spelled hoople head, is a rarely-used insult that means something like idiot or fool.
Hooplehead can also be used to refer to someone who lacks education or skills.
Example Usage
If you are looking for examples of ways in which the word hooplehead has been used, most modern ones come directly from the HBO TV show Deadwood, which was on air between 2004 and 2006. It is easy to put the word to work in any context where you encounter foolish folks, however.
- "Don't give those hoopleheads any more drinks."
- "Give those hoopleheads some drinks to calm them down."
- That hooplehead swore he'd fixed the elevator properly this time, but he did a terrible job because it's broken again.
- Oh, old Mr Boooker? Don't worry about him. He's just a harmless hooplehead who likes to mouth off about stuff he doesn't understand sometimes.
- Anyone who claims that the word hooplehead actually originated on Deadwood is, themselves, also a hooplehead.
Origin
The precise origin of the word hooplehead remains a bit of a mystery — many claim that it first emerged on the HBO show Deadwood, which follows the lives of a set of colorful characters in Deadwood, South Dakota, in the late 1800s. Deadwood is plagued by crime and corruption and features plenty of interesting word choices. Hooplehead is the insult of choice for Al Swearengen, played by Ian McShane.
The fact that hooplehead appeared in Deadwood many times, and that there is a small town in South Dakota called Hoople, has caused some people to conclude that the insult itself referred to people from that town. There is no historical indication that this is true. Instead, it appears that the insult hoople, which precedes hooplehead, started with the cartoon Our Boarding House, created by Gene Ahern and first published in 1921. The cartoon centered on Martha Hoople and her husband Major Hoople — who was a dimwitted and lazy man obsessed with making money, but not very good at it. The comic continued to appear until the early 1980s, and it is probable that the term hooplehead originated within it.
While "hoople" appears in some older slang dictionaries, the first "official" reference to the word "hooplehead" makes its appearance in 1994, namely in the Historical Dictionary of American Slang.
Hooplehead then largely remained unused until Deadwood revived its use, beginning in the year 2004.
Words Similar to Hooplehead
You have no shortage of choice if you are looking for words with similar meanings. Hooplehead has a dual meaning — denoting either an idiot or an uncultured and uneducated brute. For the first, you could choose:
- Fool
- Dimwit
- Airhead
- Halfwit
- Bonehead
Other words you could use to describe an uneducated or unskilled person include:
- Goon
- Buffoon
- Plonker
Words Opposite to Hooplehead
The opposite of a hooplehead is someone who is both smart and educated. Word choices include:
- Brainiac
- Egghead
- Nerd
- Brainbox
What Is the Correct Word?
"Hooplehead" (without spaces) and "hoople head" (with a space between "hoople" and "head") are both correct; HBO's Deadwood seems to favor the second option.
Acceptable Ways to Phrase Hooplehead
You can use the word hooplehead, which serves as a generic insult, to refer to anyone you don't like — but you would remain most faithful to the original use if you reserved hooplehead for people who lack intelligence, skills, and education, as well as (if you stick to the context in which Our Boarding House used it) being lazy and greedy.