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[personal profile] med_cat posting in [community profile] 1word1day
From the "scholarly insults" category: (thanks to [livejournal.com profile] 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])


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