On Friday the English-speaking world was startled to find itself suddenly reacquainted with the 14th-Century term "dotard", thanks to an unlikely source - Kim Jong-un.

The North Korean leader used the ancient word to describe Donald Trump several times in a fiery statement denouncing the US President's recent UN speech.

North Korea crisis in 300 words (dotard is not one of them)

The statement was an unprecedented first person address to Mr Trump and as the diplomatic community digested its meaning, many others rushed to look up this unique insult.

Mr Kim used "dotard" not once, but twice, to refer to Mr Trump.

"Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say," Mr Kim wrote, displaying a keen sense of the original meaning of the word.

But he ended his screed with the ominous line: "I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire."
So what exactly does "dotard" mean?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "an old person, especially one who has become weak or senile".

Its US brethren, Merriam-Webster, further clarified that the word initially meant "imbecile", and stems from the Middle English word "doten" which means "to dote".

North Korea's rhetoric has its own special brand of bombast, and it particularly excels in epithets and ad hominem insults.

The US, for instance, is never just an enemy, but a "hooligan", "scoundrel", and a "gangster".

Never one to shy from misogyny and racism, North Korea has called former president Barack Obama a "wicked black monkey", while the dress sense of Mr Kim and Mr Trump's common enemy, Hillary Clinton, has been mocked as resembling both a "primary schoolgirl" and "a pensioner gone shopping".

But it perhaps reserved its most colourful insults for former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, known for her hardline stance against the North and popularly known as "the bitch" in Pyongyang.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41357315

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