dunce

See also: dūncè

English

Etymology

1530, named after John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Scotus was ironically a well-known Scottish thinker; his followers, however, opposed the philosophers of the Renaissance, and thus "dunce" was first used to describe someone rejecting new knowledge in 1530; later, any stupid person.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʌns/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌns

Noun

dunce (plural dunces)

1. An unintelligent person.

   Synonyms: idiot; see also Thesaurus:idiot

   • c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, “Thoughts on Various Subjects”, in The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, volume 5:

     When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXX:

     [...] Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight!

Derived terms

• dunce cap
• duncedom
• dunce hat
• duncehood
• duncelike
• duncely
• duncish/dunceish

Translations

unintelligent person — see also idiot

• Belarusian: ёлуп m (jólup), ёлупень m (jólupjenʹ)
• Crimean Tatar: cail
• Esperanto: malklerulo
• Finnish: aasi (fi), typerys (fi), tyhmä (fi)
• French: cancre (fr) m or f
• Galician: túzaro (gl) m, bestello m, trepeiro m, tarulo m, tamarugo m, rude m
• German: Dummkopf (de) m, Schwachkopf (de) m, Dämel m, Einfaltspinsel (de) m, Dummerjan m
• Icelandic: tossi m
• Latin: barcala m, bārō m
• Macedonian: дунстер m (dunster), дудук m (duduk)
• Plautdietsch: Dommajon m
• Polish: nieuk (pl) m, antytalent m
• Russian: не́уч (ru) m (néuč), идио́т (ru) m (idiót), балда́ (ru) m (baldá), остоло́п (ru) m (ostolóp), тупи́ца (ru) m (tupíca)
• Spanish: tonto de capirote m
• Swedish: dumhuvud (sv) n, dummerjöns (sv) c
• Welsh: dỳns m, twpsyn m, penbwl (cy) m

Further reading

• “dunce”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.