Noddy

Probably a shortening of noddypoll, a now obsolete alteration of hoddypoll, "fumbling inept person".

Full definition of noddy

Noun

1. A stupid or silly person.
• BurtonHe made soft fellows stark noddies, and such as were foolish quite mad.

nod + -y?

Noun

1. Any of several stout-bodied, gregarious terns of the genera Anous and Procelsterna, found in tropical seas.
2. (dated) A small two-wheeled vehicle drawn by a single horse.
3. An inverted pendulum consisting of a short vertical flat spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top; used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal vibrations of a body to which it is attached.
4. (obsolete, uncountable) An old card game.

Derived terms

• brown noddy, Anous stolidus
• sooty noddy, Anous tenuirostris
• black noddy, Anous minutus
• blue noddy, Procelsterna cerulea
• grey noddy, Procelsterna albivitta

nod + -y, coined by John Fiske in 1987.

Noun

1. (television) A cutaway scene of a television interviewer nodding, used to cover an editing gap in an interview.Noddies are often filmed after the interview in question has finished.