The English word boob, meaning “stupid” or “dunce,” first appeared in 1599.
It comes from the Spanish word “bobo”, also meaning “stupid,” which came from the Latin balbus.
While a booby prize is awarded to the supreme loser, it was during the First World War that the nineteenth-century booby trap changed from being a harmless practical joke to its deadly modem wartime meaning of laying explosive traps for enemy soldiers.
The term “boob tube” refers to television, and is synonymous with “idiot box.”
