Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Oaf.

 O Yes’! O Yes! O Yes!Oak. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Oaf.
 
A corruption of ouph (elf). A foolish child or dolt is so called from the notion that all idiots are changelings, left by the fairies in the place of the stolen ones.   1
       
“This guiltless oaf his vacancy of sense
Supplied, and amply too, by innocence.”
       
Byron: Verses found in a Summer-house.
 


 O Yes’! O Yes! O Yes!Oak. 

 
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