slang - Etymology of "div"


Acting like a div yesterday:-



a stupid or foolish person



I started to wonder how this term of abuse came about. Urban Dictionary has a quaint tale:-



Actually originates from prison slang in the UK. A job often given to the lowest inmates was to put cardboard dividers into boxes. Someone given this job was a 'divider' or a 'div'. Now used as an insult to those who display stupidity.



which sounds somewhat contrived to me. Collins has it:-



C20: probably shortened and changed from deviant



Inky Fool, a website new to me, offers two other explanations:-



Div is a scouse word for idiot. It is short for divvy which in turn is a corruption of Deva. The Deva Hospital was a well known mental hospital (since renamed the West Cheshire Hospital) on the outskirts of Chester. Chester was founded by the Romans who named it Deva.



and



Derived from "individual needs child", a cruel schoolyard insult. Not at all politically correct. Someone who's "not quite normal", an idiot, spaz, etc.



Green's Dictionary of Slang suggests:-



perhaps related to DUH!



It seems to me that at least four of these explanations are wrong. Does anyone know the correct etymology of this term?



Answer



OED has it "of uncertain origin", although "individual-needs" is a possibility.



divvy
B. n.2
A foolish or half-witted person.



1987 Guardian 2 Mar. 12/7, I first started using the term ‘divvy’ some 20 years ago... When I was growing up in Liverpool in the 1960's it was commonly assumed to be derived from the word ‘individual’.




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