noun a person with an oversized head; hence, a fool, idiot, dimwit. The term dates back to the 1930s and first appears in print in 1941. Popularised by Boofhead, a cartoon character appearing in the Sydney Mirror in the 1940s. Probably a contraction of earlier British and Australian 'bufflehead'. The suggestion that it is from British dialect boof (stupid) is chronologically improbable AUSTRALIA, 1945