A.Word.A.Day --Simple Simon

A.Word.A.Day

Home

Jun 11, 2021

This week’s theme
Words from nursery rhymes

This week’s words
Humpty Dumpty
tuffet
Mother Hubbard
sukey
Simple Simon

Simple Simon asking the pieman for a tasting

Illustration: E. Boyd Smith
The Boyd Smith Mother Goose, 1920

This week’s comments
AWADmail 989

Next week’s theme
Contractions

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Simple Simon

PRONUNCIATION:

(SIM-puhl SY-muhn)

MEANING:

noun: A simpleton.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Simple Simon, a foolish boy in a nursery rhyme. Earliest documented use: 1673.

NOTES:

The first stanza of the nursery rhyme goes:

Simple Simon met a pieman
Going to the fair;
Said Simple Simon to the pieman,
“Let me taste your ware.”

In the rest of the poem, he fishes for a whale in a bucket, tries to roast a snowball, looks for plums on a thistle plant, and has other adventures.

USAGE:

“The bespectacled, plump, Roshu came across as earnest and tentative, a Simple Simon.”
Shefalee Vasudev; The Powder Room; Random House; 2012.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. -Ingrid Newkirk, animal rights activist (b. 11 Jun 1949)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise