Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a fool, an idiot, also as term of address (see cite 1971).

1762		I. Bickerstaff Love in a Village ii 2: Was ever such a poor stupe? [F&H].
1843		W.L. Rede Our Village I ii: The poor old stupe.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 220: ‘Oh, Charles, you heavies are such stupes. You good-natured old goose’.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 121: stupe, from stupid.
1932		‘William Hatfield’ Ginger Murdoch 10: I’d oughter let her have you, you big stupe!
1937		J.K. Butler ‘Death on the Hook’ in Headquarters Detective 🌐 ‘I sort of hate to admit about the gambling. They might hold me on it.’ ‘Don’t be a stoop [...] Everybody gambles around here.’.
1943		M. Hart Winged Victory II iii: I don’t mean stealing leaves from trees, stupe.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 133: Of all the lame-brain stupes you take the cake.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 201: He’s got a brain, that boy friend of yours, not a stupe like me.
1961		R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 96: Now I’m no stupe.
1971		J. McNeill Chocolate Frog (1973) 23: Shirker: All you learned at yer shitpot university, stupe, was ter get in a pub punch-up.
1974		(con. 1945) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 367: She would be a perfect match for that Big Stoop, he suddenly thought.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 113: You, you stupe.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 198: stupe: someone who is stupid.
1987		W.T. Vollmann You Bright and Risen Angels (1988) 45: They wouldn’t even be able to see the view they’d paid for, the stupes.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Stupe. A stupid person.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 89: The nigger vibed stupe.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 111: I can’t write much more than my own fuckin name, but I ain’t no stupe.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 134: [F]ilm-biz stupes.