When I was a lad, 'tool' was one of the innumerable allonyms of 'dick', though it wasn't yet then used in the insulting sense, referring to another person. But I always figured that latter sense was just a standard extension of the former -- cf the semantic development of 'dick' itself, and 'prick'.
Are there other dick-words that we use disparagingly to refer to people? At the moment I can't think of any.
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Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
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