Oh, the joys of doodling. I am sure that all of you have observed the doodling of doodles in your classes during lectures, or perhaps have engaged in the practice of it yourself from time to time. I must thank my little inspirational cabal of Kal Brauner and Amy Carlson for suggesting that we take a closer look at this word.

A doodle is, of course, an absent-mindedly scribbled picture, often engaging a brain that should be otherwise focused on more important, if dull, matters. But the original meaning of “doodle” was closer to “Yankee Doodle Dandy” than that rather rudimentary picture of a ladybug you scrawled in the corner of your notebook last week.

It comes from the Low German word “dudeltopf” (or just “dudel”), meaning “simpleton” or “noodle.” And, as noted by the Oxford English Dictionary, it first arrived in written English in about 1628 in John Ford’s play, The Lovers Melancholy, with the line: “Vanish, doodles, vanish!” According to the ever-helpful Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Ford (c. 1586-1653) was a noted playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare who carried forward the Bard’s legacy of tragicomedy, adding his own fascination with — and exploration of — the theme of unrequited love.

A doodler can be also someone who acts in a silly manner, with one of the expressions of this silliness being doodling, or “killing time,” as the American Heritage Dictionary defines it. That would jive well with the fact that doodle is a distant cousin, etymologically, of dawdle (or daddle or diddle), in that they have to do with the wasting or squandering of that most non-renewable of resources: time.

But “killing” time seems a tad violent. Surely, can’t we just sit down and negotiate with time and try to find a peaceful solution?

Alas, we must move on; for the record, one can be a doodler who doodles, but can also do so doodlingly as a doodle-head.

The scribbled version of our word first appeared in 1936, when Gary Cooper, as Longfellow Deeds in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, defines and defends the practice: “Almost everybody’s a doodler … did you ever see a scratchpad in a telephone booth? People draw the most idiotic pictures when they’re thinking.” Well, technically, that line was the work of screenwriter Robert Riskin, but you know what I mean.

Incidentally, a doodlebug is a type of tiger beetle. A July 1887 issue of Harper’s Magazine contains this line by way of usage-proof: “She wondered how the nice, fat little round ‘doodles’ were getting on in their tin can under the house; she never had had such a fine box of bait.”

If you haven’t yet begun doodling while reading this column, there’s some inspiration for you. If ideas for words sprout from this exercise, please send them to me and, until next time, cheers!

Reach columnist Will Mari at features@dailyuw.com.