dingbat

Meaning

Noun

• A silly, crazy or stupid person.
• A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc.
• An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars.
• A kind of word puzzle involving pictures or typography that hint at the solution.
• Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else.
• A small device or gadget, the correct term for which is forgotten or unknown.

Origin

• Unknown, US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles.