nigaud
French
Etymology
From Nigodème, a dialectal variant of Nicodème (“Nicodemus”), the semantic connection probably referring to the Pharisee's naive questions to Jesus Christ in the Book of John.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ni.ɡo/
Adjective
nigaud (feminine nigaude, masculine plural nigauds, feminine plural nigaudes)
- silly, dimwitted
Noun
nigaud m (plural nigauds)
- nincompoop, goof, nitwit
Derived terms
- attrape-nigaud
Further reading
- “nigaud”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.