dunce

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
8
Words With Friends
11
Letters
5
Pronunciation
/dʌns/

Definition of dunce

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

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

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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 person deemed stupid.

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

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