daftness / daffiness

[Mnemon]

Hi.

What's the difference between the two, daftness and daffiness? Are they both in current use in English?

 

[Jemima23]

Not a teacher.

First time hearing (or, rather, reading) the word daffiness. Had to look it up, but my original guess seemed to be correct.
I am familiar with the word daftness, but only through my favorite Scottish youtuber who uses the words daft and dafty to describe himself or his subscribers quite often.
I personally can not tell the difference between the two and it is not commonly used here (but seems to be popular with the Scots!).

 

[emsr2d2]

Not a teacher.

This is my first time hearing (or, rather, reading) the word daffiness. I had to look it up, but my original guess seemed to be correct.
I am familiar with the word daftness, but only through my favorite Scottish YouTuber, who uses the words daft and dafty to describe himself or his subscribers quite often.
I personally can not cannot tell the difference between the two and it* is not commonly used here (but seems to be popular with the Scots!) no full stop here - the exclamation mark serves as the closing punctuation mark to the sentence

* What does "it" refer to - "daftness" or "daffiness"?

 

[Skrej]

'Daft' isn't used in AmE at all.

I don't think I've ever encountered 'daffy', aside from the character of Daffy Duck, whose name I have just now come to realize the source of.

 

[probus]

I think this is another BrE/AmE difference. As @Skrej said, we don't use the adjective daft in AmE. The related adjective daffy and the noun daffiness are used albeit not very commonly.

 

[Mnemon]

we don't use the adjective daft in AmE

Now I come to think of it, what about divvy or dippy?

 

[Skrej]

'Divvy' is fairly common in AmE, but only in the verb sense of dividing something up for equal distribution. I've not encountered 'dippy' in AmE, personally.

 

[Tdol]

You can add a div to the BrE lexicon for someone who is a bit of an idiot.

 

[probus]

In my part of North America we can call somebody dippy who's a bit silly or goofy.

 

[SoothingDave]

Also seen in the vulgar "dipsh*t," someone who is not very bright and sure to goof things up if given a task.

 

[emsr2d2]

You can add a div to the BrE lexicon for someone who is a bit of an idiot.

We used "div" or "divvy" when I was at school. I don't think I've heard it for the last twenty years or so.

 

[jutfrank]

We used "div" or "divvy" when I was at school.

So did I. I think you might be moderately interested in these three competing explanations for the origin of the word:

div​

Actually originates from prison slang in the UK. A job often given to the lowest inmates was to put cardboard dividers into boxes. Someone given this job was a 'divider' or a 'div'. Now used as an insult to those who display stupidity.

div​

Div is a scouse word for idiot. It is short for divvy which in turn is a corruption of Deva. The Deva Hospital was a well known mental hospital (since renamed the West Cheshire Hospital) on the outskirts of Chester. Chester was founded by the Romans who named it Deva.

div​

Derived from "individual needs child", a cruel schoolyard insult. Not at all politically correct.

All taken from here. I think the last is the most likely true origin.

 

[SoothingDave]

We had the insult "sped" when I was a child. From SPecial EDucation students.

 

[emsr2d2]

I agree that the very un-PC third explanation is quite likely. However, I would have thought that the term "individual needs" is a later invention. When I was at school, we used "special needs" or the even worse "educationally sub-normal"! There were schools specifically set up for children in those categories and they were always referred to as "special schools".
I'm sure I never heard "individual needs" when I was a schoolchild.

Note to learners: Do not use any of the terms we've been discussing!

 

[probus]

On a related note, I've always found it hilarious that when some people decided that retarded was an unacceptable epithet, the medical profession switched to delayed and apparently that was perfectly okay. The power of synonyms!

 

[Mnemon]

All taken from here. I think the last is the most likely true origin.

Barely can Urban Dictionary be trusted. According to authoritative resources the term is of unknown origin.