@RUTGERS.ARPA:JAROCHA-ERNST@RU-BLUE.ARPA (01/11/85)
From: Chris Jarocha-Ernst <JAROCHA-ERNST@RU-BLUE.ARPA> Nimrod does indeed appear in the Bible (can't do the chapter & verse bit), where, as I recall, he is called a hunter. If you look in a thesaurus under "hunter" or its equivalent, you should find "Nimrod" used as one of those inflated Victorian-type synonyms (You know, as when a fox is called "Reynard", a rooster "Chanticleer", etc.) "Nimrod" as a term of disparagement probably (I have nothing but memory to back this up with) came from its use in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, where Bugs, referring to Elmer Fudd as a hunter, says something like "I can't do that to the little Nimrod." People watching who never heard of Nimrod before probably assumed it was Brooklynese for "dodo" or suchlike. There. Amateur etymology, while-U-wait. Chris -------