half-wit, you

half-wit, you
   This seems to be used in Britain more than the USA. It is used, often in a friendly way, to someone who is acting as if he has only half his wits about him. The expression has been in use since the seventeenth century. An example occurs in Moviola, by Garson Kanin, where a film producer calls an actress ‘you half-wit’. She has just been calling him names such as ‘you son-of-a-bitch’ and ‘you bastard’, and is not offended by the ‘halfwit’ remark.

A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . . 2015.

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