A foolish or silly person who lacks intelligence or common sense.
Origin uncertain, possibly from dialectal English or folk etymology. The word has relatively obscure roots and may be related to 'gumption' or similar words. It gained modern familiarity through popular culture references rather than historical linguistic tradition.
While the exact origin is murky, this word experienced a huge revival thanks to the 1994 film 'Forrest Gump'—though the character isn't actually foolish, which created an interesting disconnect between the character and what the word traditionally means!
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