Wackadoodle or whackadoodle describes someone or something as eccentric, wrongheaded, bizarre, or foolish, generally in an amusing way and with a mildly dismissive tone.
Wackadoodle ultimately come from "wacky." In the mid-1800s England, a "wacky" was a fool, simpleton, or left-handed person (apologies to all left handers). It might be from "whack," (a blow or a strike), implying the person has been hit over the head a few too many times.
By the 1930s in American English, wacky was describing someone as eccentric. By the 1950s, "wackadoo" emerged, with -adoo likely a playful addition for color and effect. Bill Haley & His Comets sang wack-a-doo as fun-sounding vocals in their 1956 "Razzle Dazzle."
In the 1990s wackadoo welcomed another nonsense syllable, becoming wackadoodle. An early example came in 1995 from Pennsylvania state legislator David Heckler, quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer as saying it was only "a few wackadoodles" who wanted to repeal a firearms law.
In 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary included wackadoodle in its new words list.
Words can be fun, we should use more of them, the wackier the better
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