Friday word: Witling

[med_cat]

From the "scholarly insults" category: (thanks to capt_facepalm for the word! ;)

Witling: 1 : a would-be wit

             2 : a person of little wit

First known use: 1693

"A beau and witling perished in the throng,

One died in metaphor, and one in song."

(from Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock [a poem about the theft of a lock of hair])