lummox

• lummock, lummocks, lummux

Unknown. First attested in 1825 in East Anglian slang. Perhaps from "dumb ox", influenced by lumbering; or from or cognate to dialectal verb lummock (“move about heavily or clumsily”), itself a word of uncertain origin.

• enPR: lŭmʹəks, IPA^(key): /ˈlʌməks/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌməks

lummox (plural lummoxes)

1. (informal) A clumsy, stupid person; an awkward bungler.

   You've broken the plates, you great lummox!

   • 1889, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “The Tragedy of the Manor-house”, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, New York, N.Y.: Charles L. Webster & Company, →OCLC, page 382:

     As a rule, a knight is a lummux, and sometimes even a labrick, and hence open to pretty poor arguments when they come glibly from a superstition-monger, but even he could see the practical side of a thing once in a while; […]

   • 2000, Louis Mellis, David Scinto, Sexy Beast (motion picture), spoken by Don Logan (Ben Kingsley):

     I love you, Gal. You're lovable. Big lovable bloke. Loveable lump. Loveable lummox. Gal Dove, party boy. Big oaf.

• “lummocks n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present