The Quintessential Dingbat is gone. Jean Stapleton gave birth to the Original
Dingbat on TV when she assumed the role of Edith Bunker a naive, gullible,
wonderful person who you could not help but love. Even Archie Bunker loved Edith and he loved
very few people. Before Edith, had there
even been the word Dingbat? Aren’t there a few people you have known or do know
that are Dingbats? I can honestly say, I
have known a few but none quite like Edith.
Edith provided levity and comic relief during many episodes of
All in the Family where really
difficult and at the time very controversial issues were being played out on
National Television. The show was
groundbreaking and I think changed the face of programming forever. In addition to the great comedy and variety
shows, there was now a show that dealt with real life issues and a more real
and yes, dysfunctional family. It was to
my knowledge the first time that people with such incredibly different
political views as portrayed by Archie Bunker and His son-in-law whom he
called meat head went toe to toe on so many topics. And Edith in her dingbat
ways often played the voice of reason.
When she got mad at Archie he did listen. The show even discussed things like menopause
and cancer. It was an amazing show which I watched every week because I have
parents that were open minded enough not to censor the show.
Getting back to my quandary about whether or not Dingbat is
really a word, I can say that it is a word, although all this time I thought
Norman Lear just made it up. Of course I
did a Google search and have come across some interesting tidbits which I will
share with you. First I will give you
some of the definitions I found of the word; Dingbat
(1) a slang term meaning eccentric, silly or empty-headed person, (2) an
ornamental piece of type for borders, separators, decorations, etc.
Its origin is around 1830 or 40 but this information is
uncertain.
Now here are some tidbits I found about the word. The first tidbit was on answer.com and the
author left initials so I can’t fully credit anyone but here it is:
The
word originated in 1894, in the royal Institute for the blind. Until then blind
people had been unable to enjoy cricket. Samuel L. D. Waterman devised a system
for blind people to play, part of the method was to attach bells to the bat,
every time the ball would strike the bat it would ding.
I
love that answer don’t you?
My second finding is:
On
the History of Insults in English by Bill Long
The dingbat as an insult didn't
appear until 1911, the word dingbat
first appeared in the 19th century. It was, at first, a plastic term, able to
be used in several different contexts. In fact, an 1895 entry in
Dialect
Notes suggested seven current definitions for dingbat, such as (1) Balls
of dung on buttocks of sheep or cattle; (3) A
flying missile; (7) An
affectionate embrace of mothers hugging and kissing their children; or (8) A
term of admiration ('They are regular ding-bats' (speaking of girls)). So
around 1911 ding-bat took
on another meaning, the one which dominates today--a term of disparagement
denoting a foolish or stupid person. What
fascinates me is that at first the term denoted a foolish man
but then gradually morphed, as the century wore on, to refer to a foolish woman. With
the advent of "All in the Family," a sitcom of the 1970s, where
Archie Bunker continually referred to his wife Edith as a "dingbat,"
the feminine association of the term was seared into our consciousness.
Here is an article that appeared in the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/jean-stapleton-tvs-beloved-edith-bunker-from-all-in-the-family-dies-at-90-in-nyc/2013/06/01/cd90f05c-caff-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html
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