Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stupid, foolish; thus boobyism n., foolishness.

1679		‘Colin’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 24: They said a cunt so used to puke / Could never bear a booby duke.
1687		‘Lovers’ Session’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 182: Young Griffin, apparent son of the old, / In whose bel air his booby father is told.
1695		Congreve Love for Love I i: You have heard of a booby brother of mine that was sent to sea three years ago?
1697		M. Pix Innocent Mistress I i: His lady and a booby brother of hers have got my mistress in their power.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 53: Many other such comical, clownish, surly, antick, moody, booby Faces.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 24: To treat with her in Private, first came a Booby Squire. [Ibid.] 341: Send out their Booby Sons to France, to Dress, / Or suck Doctrine from his Holiness.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 56: A Booby Squire making Love to a young Lady.
1739		R. Bull Grobianus 92: The Booby Tribe, with grave Digressions vex’d, Cries, Doctor! do not wander from the Text.
1741		Sexes Mis-Match’d 178: Close in with her; ten Thousand Pound clear Estate; encumbred with nothing but a boobily Son, who can never be at Age.
1749		Fielding Tom Jones (1959) 461: Looking more like a fool, if it be possible, than a young booby squire.
1756		Foote Englishman Returned from Paris in Works (1799) I 96: Sir John Buck, plagued me with [...] the care of his booby boy.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1797) II 31: You think the rock of Troy / Some chuckle-headed booby boy.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 291: [as cit. 1762].
1789		Hartly House, Calculutta 267: His imbibing so exalted an idea ‘of the height and depth of my deservings’, that he falls into the state of boobyism.
1799		Sporting Mag. Apr. XIV 30/2: The booby servants stood gaping and grinning at my distress.
1812		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Picturesque (1868) 64/1: This vulgar, booby Lord 1922 (Bertha Clark) (SF).
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome IV 190: At the Country Ball too, John His booby Cousin Bob outshone.
[1826		Caledonian Mercury 24 June 4/2: In the bobbily heaviness of Lolpoop in the ‘Squire of Alsatia’ he seemed the immovable log he stood for].
1833		Satirist (London) 17 Mar. 511/2: Yonder sits sellon in his easy chair, His booby face, good reader, cast your eye on.
1836		Dickens Sketches by Boz 1 n.p.: The donkeys who are prevailed upon to pay for permission to exhibit their lamentable ignorance and boobyism on the stage of a private theatre.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 15 Jan. n.p.: [A] booby magistrate with plenty of money.
1850		T. Powell Living Authors of America 1st ser. 67: The generality would prefer to be suspected of knavery, than of boobyism. This will account for the virulence of the blockhead: to surpass him in genius or learning is to make him your deadly enemy.
1853		C. Sinclair Frank Vansittart 28: You shall have a certificate of boobyism to take home, or no mortal would believe in your fall.
1867		C.A. Warfield Romance of Beauseincourt 301: Their simplicity is apt to degenerate into boobyism ; their gayety into turbulence ; their wit into impudence.
1872		Burnley Gaz. 28 Dec. 5/1: Mr Punch is an authority to whom every boobyism in the habit of bowing.
1882		J.S. Abbott Empire of Russia 386: Stung to the quick by the utter neglect of her husband, insulted by the presence of his mistresses, and disgusted by his unmitigated boobyism.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 13 May 523: The boy would not cry for the world, because other middies or apprentices were looking on just to see if ‘mamma’s darling was going to make a little booby baby of itself’.
1900		Marvel 15 May 7: I’m getting down to the bedrock of boobyism!
1910		N.Z. Truth 16 Mar. 7/5: [headline] A Booby Bobby.
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] Jazz songs, ballads, sad, silly, boobish nut songs—all about love me—love me.