dunce

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.

noun

  1. An unintelligent person.
    When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, “//dummy.host/index.php?title=s%3Aen%3AThe+Works+of+the+Rev.+Jonathan+Swift%2FVolume+5%2FThoughts+on+Various+Subjects Thoughts on Various Subjects”, in The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, volume 5
    … Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight! 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXX

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/dunce), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.