Noodle
/ˈnuːdəl/noun
A long, thin strip of unleavened dough cooked in liquid, or informal slang for a person's head or a foolish person.
Did you know?The word is first recorded in English in the 18th century and is probably from German dialect forms like *Nudel*, whose deeper origin is uncertain, so its exact ancestral trail is still partly mysterious.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*neud-
“to twist, knot, or make a protuberance”
Old High German
OHG
nudla
“a knot, lump, or swelling”
German dialects
German
Nudel
“a strip of dough; also a lump or soft mass”
18th Century
English
noodle
“a noodle; later also a foolish person or head”
Modern English
English
noodle
“a pasta strip; informally, a head or a silly person”