ADDLEPATED UNCLE DON PART 1

TO A RELATIVELY SELECT FEW, I am myself an uncle, sorta. So it is with personal sensitivity, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, that I address the concept of addlepated avuncular behavior.

Full disclosure: In a first draft I assayed “addlepation” as a noun only to find that this word isn’t recognized by Merriam-Webster. These other two are fine, though, up to a point.

Etymologies. Merriam-Webster defines “avuncular” as “1: suggestive of an uncle especially in kindliness or geniality” and “2: of or relating to an uncle.” It continues, “Avuncular comes from the Latin noun avunculus, which means ‘maternal uncle,’ but since at least the 19th century English speakers have used avuncular to describe uncles from either side of the family, or people who are uncle-like in character or behavior. Avunculus is also an ancestor of the word uncle itself.”

“Addlepated,” says Merriam-Webster, is “1: being mixed up : CONFUSED” and “2: ECCENTRIC.” Of its origin, M-W writes, “While the meaning of the somewhat rare noun pate (‘head’) is straightforward, cracking open the adjective addle is where things get interesting. In Old English, the noun adela referred to filth, or to a filthy or foul-smelling place. In Middle English, adela came to be used as an adjective in the term adel eye, meaning ‘putrid egg.’ For its first few centuries of adjectival use, and with various spellings, addle was used strictly for eggs, but in the 16th century it gained a figurative sense that, when applied disparagingly to people’s heads or brains, suggested the diminished or rotten condition of an addle (or addled) egg. Today, addle is often found in combination with words referring to one’s noggin, addlebrained, and addle-headed, and most common of all, addlepated.”

Ain’t etymology fun?

I confess that my use of these words in what follows ignores the geniality and kindliness noted above and focuses on the mixed up  aspect of the second. Indeed, it borders on the wacko. This, because, to quote Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s behavior: “I mean, if your dad was saying stuff like this, you’d start looking for an assisted-living facility.”

Biden Robots. To wit: Raquel Coronell Uribe reports in NBC News, June 1, 2025, “Trump Shares Unfounded Conspiracy Theory Claiming Biden Was ‘Executed’ in 2020.” Uribe recounts, “President Donald Trump on Saturday night reposted a baseless claim on Truth Social that former President Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with clones or robots. The original post, made by an anonymous Truth Social user who often spreads outlandish claims, suggested that Biden was replaced with ‘clones, doubles’ and ‘robotic engineered soulless mindless entities.’ ”

Image from Fox News.

The utterly astounding thing to me is the image’s inclusion of 7.36k “ReTruths” and 18.1k “Likes.” I suspect Fox News is celebrating it.  

Geez.

Tomorrow in Part 2, we examine an historian’s assessment of Donald Trump’s addlepated behavior as exhibited at the West Point graduation ceremony and during our national observance of Memorial Day.

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025