dunce

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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

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “dunce”, Wordorigins.org, Dave Wilton, Sunday, June 11, 2006.

Further reading

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