the.com/bully
Insecurity wearing someone else's dignity as a costume.
means Someone who uses size, power, or threat to intimidate or hurt people they see as weaker.
from Ironically, 'bully' started out as a term of affection — in the 1500s it meant 'sweetheart' or 'fine fellow,' probably from the Dutch 'boel,' meaning lover or brother. Over the 1600s it curdled: the word drifted through 'blustering protector' to 'harasser of the weak,' possibly as swaggering 'protectors' revealed themselves as thugs for hire. By the time 'bully' settled into its modern sense, it had completely reversed itself — one of language's small, grim ironies.
- origin shift
- word once meant sweetheart in the 1500s
- power source
- needs an audience to actually work
- adult version
- gets promoted and called assertive
- root cause
- usually bullied somewhere else first