Editing Doodle (section)

==Etymology==
The word ''doodle'' first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton.<ref name="Oxford" /> It may derive from the German ''Dudeltopf'' or ''Dudeldop'', meaning simpleton or noodle (literally "nightcap").<ref name="Oxford" /> It is the origin of the early eighteenth-century verb ''to doodle'', meaning "to swindle or to make a fool of". The modern meaning emerged as a term for a politician who was doing nothing in office at the expense of his constituents.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Doodle Revolution|last=Brown|first=Sunni|publisher=Portfolio/Penguin|year=2014|isbn=978-1-59184-703-8|location=New York|pages=11}}</ref>  That led to the more generalized verb "to doodle", which means to do nothing.<ref name=":1" />

In the final courtroom scene of the 1936 film ''[[Mr. Deeds Goes to Town]]'', the main character explains the concept of "doodling" to a judge unfamiliar with the word, saying that "People draw the most idiotic pictures when they're thinking."<ref name="Etymonline" /><ref name="Dictionary.com" /><ref name="Riskin1997" /> The character, who has travelled from a fictional town in [[Vermont]], describes the word ''doodler'' as being "a name we made up back home" for people who make "foolish designs" on paper when their mind is on something else.<ref name="Riskin1997" />

The meaning "fool, simpleton" is intended in the song title "[[Yankee Doodle]]", originally sung by British colonial troops during the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Heavy Words Lightly Thrown|last=Roberts|first=Chris|publisher=Gotham Books|year=2005|isbn=1-592-40130-9|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/heavywordslightl00robe/page/87 87–91]|url=https://archive.org/details/heavywordslightl00robe/page/87}}</ref>