colloq. Also 6–7 iobbernowle, -noul(e, iobernol(e, 7 job(b)ernoll, 7–9 jobbernol(e, 8 -knowl, 9 (in Dicts.) jabbernowl. [app. f. jobbard, JOBARD + NOLL, OE. hnol, head; but evidence of the historical connection is incomplete.]
1. A blockish or stupid head; a ludicrous term for the head, usually connoting stupidity.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vi. 200. His guts are in his braines, huge Iobbernoule, Right Gurnets-head.
1656. Earl Monm., Advt. fr. Parnass., 356. Submit your jobernols to the sacred precepts of Nature.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. ii. 815. And, like the World, Men’s Jobbernoles Turn round upon their Ears, the Poles.
1794. Gifford, Baviad (1811), 32. Nothing from thy jobbernowl can spring But impudence and filth.
1827. Blackw. Mag., XXII. 480. The Giant, heightened by the ell-long bonnet and feather on his huge jobbernowl.
2. A stupid person, a blockhead.
1592. Nashe, 4 Lett. Confut., E iv. Gaffer Iobbernoule,… how dost thou?
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. Prol. A certain sneaking jobernol alledged that his [Horace’s] verses smelled more of the wine then oile.
1711. E. Ward, Quix., I. 94. How hard His Brother Jobbernole had far’d.
1823. Blackw. Mag., XIV. 512. Ministers, who are regularly called asses,… dunder-pates, jobbernowls.
1890. Hall Caine, Bondman, XX. II. 242. The numskull!… The jobbernowl!
3. attrib. or as adj. Stupid, dunderheaded.
1828. Examiner, 6 Jan., 4/2. Misled by the jobbernol applause of an audience.
1838. J. P. Kennedy, Rob of Bowl, xv. 172. Our jobbernowl English … have gone back to their old sport.
Hence Jobbernowlism, the condition, or something characteristic, of a jobbernowl; stupidity; a stupid act, remark, etc.
1632. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 265. A more sanctified brother, whose zealous jobernolisme would never have affected … Plato, Euclid, or Aristotle.
1824. Blackw. Mag., XVI. 289. Gabble pretty jobbernowlisms on the sky gods.
