hoddy-peak

English

From hoddydoddy + dialectal peak (“head”).

hoddy-peak (plural hoddy-peaks)

(obsolete) A fool, person of low intelligence. [c. 1500-1820]
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fool
- 1527, John Skelton, Womanhood, Wanton, Ye Want!:
  He sayeth ‘Thou huddy-peke! / Thy learnyng is too lewd, / Thy tongue is not well thewed, / To seek before our grace.’
- 1549 March 22, Hugh Latimer, “The Third Sermon of M. Hugh Latimer, preached before King Edward”, in Project Canterbury, Sermons by Hugh Latimer‎^[1]:
  Then answered the Pharisees, Num et vos seducti estis? "What, ye brain-sick fools, ye hoddy-pecks, ye doddy-pouls, ye huddes, do ye believe him? are you seduced also? […] "
- 1594, Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller: or, the Life of Jack Wilton:
  No other apt means had this Cicely, to work her hoddy-peak husband a proportionable plague to his jealousy, but to give his head a full lodging of infamy: she thought she would make him complain for something, that now was so hard bound with an heretical opinion.
(obsolete) A cuckold, a married man whose wife is unfaithful. [c. 1590-1680]
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cuckold
- 1589, Thomas Nashe, The Anatomy of Absurdity‎^[2] (PDF):
  But women, through want of wisdom, are grown to such wantonness that upon no occasion they will cross the street to have a glance of some gallant, […] who, under her husband's (that hoddypeak's) nose must have all the distilling dew of his delicate rose, leaving him only a sweet scent, good enough for such a senseless sot.