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My name is Nimrod Wildfire -- half horse, half alligator and a touch of airthquake -- that's got the prettiest sister, the fastest horse and the ugliest dog in the District, and can outrun, out-jump, throw down, drag out and whip any man in Old Kaintuck." In 1830 Colonel Nimrod Wildfire could make a bird go blind watching him load and shoot his Kentucky long rifle.
Created in London as a fictional character representative of Col. Davy Crockett and the adventures of a colonel from Kentucky into the West, in 1832 the character visits New York to for a session of amenoloriation of manners in the Kentuckian, it is the first appearance of the "Kentucky Colonel" in a National Newspaper in Philadelphia that reviewed the London performance.
Nimrod is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Shinar (Mesopotamia). The Bible states that he was "a mighty hunter before the Lord [and] ... began to be mighty in the earth". Later extra-biblical traditions identified Nimrod as the ruler who commissioned the construction of the Tower of Babel, which led to his reputation as a king who was rebellious against God.
The term "nimrod" is sometimes used in English to mean either a tyrant, adventurer or a skillful hunter. (Wikipedia)
In modern North American English, the term "nimrod" is often used to mean a dimwitted or a stupid person. The nickname 'Nimrod' was used mockingly in the 1914 novel by Robert Tressell in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. The sarcastic moniker was used towards the foreman (named Hunter) of a gang of workmen as a play both on his surname and on his supposed religious beliefs and sense of self-importance.
The usage is often said to have been popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny sarcastically referring to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod" to highlight the difference between "mighty hunter" and "poor little Nimrod", i.e. Fudd. However, it is in fact Daffy Duck who refers to Fudd as "my little Nimrod" in the 1948 short "What Makes Daffy Duck", although Bugs Bunny does refer to Yosemite Sam as "the little Nimrod" in the 1951 short "Rabbit Every Monday".
