As daft as a brush là gì

The phrase “as daft as a brush” means a very stupid or a very foolish person. It is often used for a person who always does stupid acts. In some occasions, it is also an insult when a person has a very high expectations from the opposite person.

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Origin of “As Daft as a Brush”
Examples in Literature
Examples in Sentences

Origin of “As Daft as a Brush”

The origin of “as daft as a brush” appears to have emerged from “as daft as a besom” used by William Dickinson in A glossary of Words and phrases of Cumberland published in 1859. In this dictionary, this phrase goes thus; “Ey, as daft as a besom” which means stupid. Then it has appeared in a newspaper Lincolnshire Echo in its June 1944 publication in its original form “daft as brush” as given in a sentence given below.

“I will agree with anything that says I am daft, daft as a brush, but I have enough sense to keep away from your daughter.”

Examples in Literature

The Life of Blur by Martin Power

“Riddled with memorable catchphrases and featuring a chorus most bands would happily kill for, ‘Parklife’ was another potential monster in the making. To make sure of it, Food hired film maker Pedro Romhanyi to direct a suitably eye-catching video. Daft as a brush from start to finish, the final product had Daniels and Albarn playing a pair of oily double-glazing salesman, while Rowntree and James hammed it up as happy couple ‘Ken and Cindy,’ the bassist dressed in drag especially for the occasion. All the good roles now gone, Coxon was forced to put on a fat suit play ‘Parklife’s least endearing character, the gym-shy ‘Gut Lord Marching.’

This paragraph as been taken from The Life of Blur, the story of Blur, a rock English band, and its four maestros Coxon, Rowntree, Albarn, and James. This paragraph sheds light on how they burgeoned Parklife but their video Pedro Romhanyi recorded proved highly stupid. The use of the phrase shows that this video did not prove successful as four of took up roles that did not suit them. Therefore, the video seemed a foolish act.

Example #2

The Valley: A Hundred Years in the Life of a Family by Richard Benso

“Millie, who likes dances, suggested that one at the Miners’ Welfare Hall because she was on the bill. She performs with a young amateur singer comedian from Bolton-upon Dearne known as the Juggler, and he has asked her to do a couple of songs with him and the band. ‘You’ll have to come and meet him!’ she told Winnie. ‘He’s a good sport, but he’s as daft as a brush.’”

This story of the Hollingworth family of the Dearne Valley presents the character of Millie who is to perform with a young comedian the Juggler. However, she calls him stupid using this phrase. The use of this phrase shows the intelligence of this girl as she considers herself superior to that comedian. Therefore, she uses this phrase to prove that he cannot perform with her.

Example #3

“Semantic Enigmas” from The Guardian

“Actually the full expression is: Daft as a brush and not half as useful. In the days of chimney sweeps children were often used to clean chimnies as they were the only ones small enough to access the chimney to sweep it out. They were held upside down inside the chimney and accidents frequently ensued resulting, of course in brain injury. Hence the expression “daft” which means silly, unable to concentrate etc.” (Courtesy by Bev Paras, Sydney, Australia)

This paragraph by an Australian, Bev Paras, tries to pinpoint the origin of this phrase. The interesting thing about this paragraph is that it has linked it to some plausible past actions of the chimney sweepers and the use of daft in the meanings of silly or stupid. It shows how daft has been linked to the chimney sweepers on account of brain injuries they received when sweeping chimneys.

Example #4

The Road Leading to Hell by Flamy Lawword

“Tseronida does not attract me at all. It is not enough that she is clumsy; in addition, she is as daft as a brush,” he doubted.Then there was the master of intrigues.
“You must marry Tseronida. Her stupidity is in your hands. She is not a beauty, I understand you. What are superfluous troubles to you for?”

These lines are taken from the story of Flamy Lawword titled “The Road Leading to Hell.” The story is about the people of Atlantis, a world existed around a million year earlier. Here she presents the character of Tseronida who does not seem attractive as the narrator calls her stupid using this phrase in the very first sentence.

Examples in Sentences

Example #1: “My grandmother says I have to choose my friends wisely. She says almost all of my friends are as daft as brushes.”

Example #2: “If you don’t stick one decision and don’t do enough research, people might say you are as daft as a brush.”

Example #3: “Johnson has tried his best to keep his head high, but he looked as daft as a brush when he entered the arena.”

Example #4: “Leo believed the polar bears and penguins were friends. He was as daft as a brush until he learned the difference between the North and the South poles.”

Example #5: “When you don’t change with times and learn to use the technology, you will remain as daft as a brush.”

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Stupidity

To be 'as daft as a brush' is to be very stupid or foolish.

On the face of it, brushes wouldn't seem to be any more daft than anything else. As the source of the expression isn't obvious, various suggestions have been put forward as to what form of brush is being referred to; for instance:

- The phrase originated as 'as soft as a brush' and the brush is the tail of a fox. This is plausible in that 'soft' is a northern English term for stupid, and foxes tails are in fact quite soft to the touch.
- The brushes in the expression are the boys that were employed in the 18th/19th centuries to climb inside chimneys to sweep them. The theory here, which is somewhat less plausible, is that the boys were made into idiots by being repeatedly dropped on their heads when being lowered down the chimneys.

Nevertheless, as we shall see, the 'brush' in this simile is neither of these; it is, as the dictionary would have it "A utensil consisting of a piece of wood or other suitable material, set with small tufts or bunches of bristles, hair, or the like, for sweeping or scrubbing dust and dirt from a surface", that is - a brush. Are brushes daft? Not particularly, but then again I've never had a sensible conversation with one.

In looking for early examples of 'daft as a brush' in print we find that it first starts appearing in the 1940s. The earliest that I know of in print is from an account of a court case, printed in the Lincolnshire Echo, June 1944:

"I will agree with anything that says I am daft, daft as a brush, but I have enough sense to keep away from your daughter."

'Daft as a brush' may be a variant of an older expression 'as mazed as a brish'. 'Mazed' is defined in the OED as meaning 'Stupefied, dazed; insane, crazed; bewildered, confused' and dates from the 14th century. 'Brish' is a country dialect word for brush which dates from the 17th century, as is found in this street hawker's song published in a song collection in 1669:

Or have you ever seen or heardThe Mortal with a Lyon Tawny beard,He lives as merrily as any heart can wish,
And still he cries buy a Brish, by a Brish.

'As mazed as a brish' appears in print quite some years before 'daft as a brush' as in the below example from the Exeter Flying Post, June 1892. The printed text is in a jokey form of doggerel, of which the below is a more readable rendition:

Mister Editor, when you see Susan in the City, please say us all send our kind love. She lives somewhere near the Cathedral, and is as fine a maid as ever stepped in shoe leather, and Walter Axford is as mazed as a brish after Susan.

'Mazed as a brish' and 'daft as a brush' mean the same thing so there's reason to surmise that the later one derived from the earlier.

There have been numerous 'as daft as a...' similes used over the centuries and why the 'brush' version has stuck with us isn't clear, or why a brush was chosen to symbolise daftness.

1944 seems later than I would have expected and, as the word 'daft' has always been used more often in the north of England than in other places, a scan of some north country references seems in order. Voilà. 'Daft as a brush' it is in fact pre-dated by an earlier variant still - 'daft as a besom'. The earliest citation I can find is a listing in William Dickinson's A glossary of the words and phrases of Cumberland, 1859:

Daft, without sense. "Ey, as daft as a besom."

A 'besom' is of course a brush made from twigs and an indication that the phrase originated with the 'besom' rather than the 'brish' or 'brush' versions comes in another glossary, from just a few years earlier and collected in the same area - John and William Brockett's A glossary of North country words, with their etymology, 1846:

Fond, silly, foolish. An old Northern word. 'Fond-as-a-buzzom', remarkably silly.

The use of 'fond' to mean foolish pre-dated our current usage, which is 'to feel affection for'. That present day meaning migrated from the earlier meaning of 'foolish'. In Richard Rolle's Psalter, 1339, the author refers to 'fonnyd maydyns' (foolish girls). The word appears in more contemporary language in John Lyly's Euphues, the Anatomy of Wyt, 1578:

He that is young thinketh the old man fond.

So, as far as I know the variants of 'as daft as a brush' emerged at these dates:

As fond as a besom - 1846As daft as a besom - 1859As mazed as a brish - 1892
As daft as a brush - 1944

Whether they are effectively all the same phrase and one emerged from another or whether they were coined independently is anyone's guess. The question also remains, why would a besom/brish/brush be thought of as daft?

See other 'as x as y similes'.