# doofus

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈduːfəs/ · frequency rank #52,902

## Definitions
1. A person with poor judgment and taste; a foolish or silly person.

## Etymology
Perhaps an alteration of earlier goofus (first attested in the 1920s), due to influence from Scots doof (“simpleton”). Scots doof is derived from Low German doof (“deaf", with a secondary sense of "idiotic, stupid”). The Low Saxon word is cognate with English deaf.
Some have proposed that perhaps dupe played some kind of role in the development of doofus as well.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/doofus