Kim Jong Un Insulted Donald Trump And Taught America A New Word At The Same Time

Here's what "dotard" means.
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President Donald Trump called Kim Jong Unrocket man” earlier this week, and now the North Korean dictator has returned fire.

Kim gave Trump a nickname of his own ― and it’s one that sent Americans scrambling for a dictionary.

“I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged dotard with fire,” Kim said in a statement released by the North Korean government Thursday.

While the statement was full of choice words for Trump ― calling him “unfit,” “rogue” and “gangster” ― it was the word “dotard,” used twice, that seemed to catch everyone’s attention.

According to Merriam-Webster, a “dotard” is a “person in his or her dotage,” with “dotage” further defined as “a state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness.”

Freelance journalist Jihye Lee said the original statement in Korean used a term better translated as “old beast lunatic,” but it became “dotard” in the English version released by North Korea.

The statement caused the word “dotard” to trend on Twitter. Here are some of the reactions:

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