This is what happens when you give two little children access to nuclear weapons.

Thankfully, for now, the war between Trump and Kim Jong Un has been limited to words. Trump has been calling Kim ‘Rocket Man’, which prompted North Korea’s top diplomat Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to compare POTUS to a barking dog (HERE).

But that was merely the entree, because Kimmy has now issued his own statement.

Pay attention to the word that has led to all the Googling, with this part of Jon Un’s written statement coming from QZ:

Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy the DPRK, we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.

Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say.

I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.

DOTARD – what the what?

Have to agree with Kim on the mentally deranged front, but we’ll have to dig deeper for “dotard”:

Merriam-Webster defines “dotard” as “a person in his or her dotage,” while “dotage” refers to “a state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness.” In short, a dotard is someone who’s senile. It’s pronounced “Dough”-tard, not “Dot”-tard.

According to the Cambridge History of the English Language, it originates from the medieval-era word “doten,” which meant “to be foolish, to rave.”

I’ll be honest, I just thought it was a conflation of Donald and ‘tard’.

Searches online have spiked:

Usage of the word peaked during the early 19th century (which is ironically when Trump believed America was Great Again), but there is another factor to consider.

Kim’s speech was translated from Korean, so perhaps the word ‘dotard’ doesn’t perfectly align with what he was trying to say:

Entering the original Korean term, 늙다리 미치광이, into Google Translate yields “old man lunatic.” Others have suggested “old beast lunatic” as another translation.

You don’t want to agree with Kim, because it’s all very uncouth, but if the glove fits.

A quick reminder of Trump talking about uranium:

At least dotard is a word – unlike Nambia.

[source:qz]