Nimrod

[n] 1. (Old Testament) a famous hunter
2. Informal. A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

[After Nimrod. Sense 2, probably from the phrase “poor little Nimrod,” used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd.]

An imgage came to her of herself and her mother, standing here in set positions, her mother by her rocker and she by the door; only they were tied together by a hank of green yarn, a cord that had grown frayed and weak from many restless tuggings. Image transformed into her mother in a nimrod's hat, the band sportily pierced with many different flies. Trying to reel it in for the last time and pop it away in the wicker creel. But for what purpose? To mount it? To eat it?

Stephen King, Salem's Lot.

"I'm afraid if your wife cannot give me her legal name," the man said, "this will have to be an involuntary commitment."

Your father stepped up to the man. "Listen to me, Nimrod," he said. "I'm paying the bill in this sonavabitch joint, and if my wife wants to sign herself in as the President of the Goddamn United States, that's how you'll do it, you hear me? Her name is Rita Abbott Hayworth. My wife signs in however she wants, and then you take Goddamn care of her. She is a precious woman. Am I clear?"

Man was clear.

Rebecca Wells, Ya-Ya Sisterhood

myrmidon

1. [n] (Greek mythology) a member of the warriors who followed Achilles on the expedition against Troy
2. [n] a follower who carries out orders without question

When the day came round for my return to the scene of the deed of violence, my terrors reached their height. Whether myrmidons of justice, specially sent down from London, would be lying in ambush behind the gate? Whether Miss Havisham, preferring to take personal vengeance for an outrage done to her house, might rise in those grave-clothes of hers, draw a pistol, and shoot me dead?

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

The Senor Don Alfonso stood confused. Antonia bustled round the ransacked room. And turning up her nose, with looks abused Her master and his myrmidons, of whom Not one, except the attorney, was amused. He, like Achates faithful to the tomb, So there were quarrels, cared not for the cause, Knowing they must be settled by the laws.

Lord Byron, Don Juan