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Medieval · insult · noun

Doddypoll

DOD-ee-pohl /ˈdɑdiˌpoʊl/ (US)pronunciation given by a dictionary

First recordedc. 1400

A stupid person, a blockhead. The second half is 'poll', the old word for 'head'; the first is probably Middle English 'dote', a fool or senile old man — so roughly 'dotard-head'.

Where it was first recorded

Dated by Etymonline (c. 1400, as 'dotypolle'), which does not name the work.

Also spelled: dotipoll, dotypolle, dodipoll, dotepol, doddye poulle

In its own time

Ye hoddy peckes, Ye doddye poulles, ye huddes, do ye beleue hym? are you ſeduced alſo?
Hugh Latimer, third sermon before King Edward VI, March 1549 (Arber reprint, 1869, p. 84 per the OED's citation). The long s is kept as ſ; transcribed from the Internet Archive scan, whose OCR renders ſ as 'f' — two separate scans read identically. · read it

Today

Modern exampleSome doddypoll has set the office thermostat to thirty degrees again.

Harmless and theatrical — a comic, obscure word for a fool.

Questions

What does doddypoll mean?

A stupid person, a blockhead. The second half is 'poll', the old word for 'head'; the first is probably Middle English 'dote', a fool or senile old man — so roughly 'dotard-head'.

When was doddypoll first used?

It is first recorded c. 1400.

Can you still use doddypoll today?

Harmless and theatrical — a comic, obscure word for a fool.

Sources

  1. doddypoll — Etymonline (Online Etymology Dictionary)
  2. doddypoll — Merriam-Webster
  3. A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, vol. V (H–K), 1901 — 'Hoddypeak' — Clarendon Press (via Internet Archive scan)
  4. Seven Sermons before Edward VI, 1549 (Arber reprint, 1869) — Internet Archive

Checked 2026-09-30 · verdict: rare — genuine, but marked rare, obsolete or archaic, or seldom recorded, in the dictionaries listed above

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