King Nimrod

In the Tower of Babel story of Genesis, there are no names given to the monarch or anyone else in this short account about the confusion of languages. Another obscure biblical reference to a king at the time who was named Nimrod connected him to the narrative through later story tellers and interpreters. In our day, Nimrod is a slang term meaning clumsy or slow witted. The meaning originated in a Bugs Bunny cartoon in the 1940's, when Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs, referred to Elmer Fudd, who was hunting Bugs with no luck, as "Poor little Nimrod." Mel Blanc, a language scholar, would have known that "Nimrod" means "hunter." People at the time however, especially teenagers, started using the term in reference to people they felt displayed the characteristics of Bug's perpetual loser foe, Elmer. King Nimrod became the bigger loser however, with his name associated with two negative characters to whom he had no connection at all. (Image from PowerPoint, From Eden to Esau)