blockhead

Etymology

It is formed from English block + head.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The first element is from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from a Germanic source such as Middle Dutch bloc (“trunk of a tree”).^[3] Etymonline thinks it probably began as an image of the head-shaped oak block used by hatters, while noting that the insult is just as old,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged lists a wooden head for hats or wigs as an obsolete sense.^[7] The OED compares the use of block itself for a stupid person.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stupid or foolish person: 1532, in T. More's Confutation of Tyndale's Answer, which the OED's 2022 revision records as the first use.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word's use for a dull head to 1549,^[7] Dictionary.com to 1540–50,^[6] and Etymonline finds it implied in blockheaded in the 1540s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has had the same meaning from the start.^[2][5] In the 16th century it could also mean the head of a stupid person, a use that lasted until 1813.^[2][7] It also served as an adjective: Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes "a lumpish block-head churle" from the 1551 translation of More's Utopia,^[5] and the OED's first record is from 1606, in Chapman.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a stupid fellow; a dolt; a man without parts", quoting Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Hudibras and Pope.^[4] The OED now labels it colloquial.^[2] A slang use from 2001 means a dedicated user of cannabis, from block for the packaged resin.^[5]

Timeline

• 1532 – a stupid person.^[2]
• 1551 – adjective, stupid.^[5] The OED has this from 1606.^[2]
• 1555 – the head of a stupid person (obsolete by 1813).^[2]
• 2001 – in drug slang, a dedicated user of cannabis.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (colloquial) A stupid person; a dolt or fool: Only a blockhead would leave the gate open.^[2][8][7][4]
2. (obsolete, 1555–1813) The head of a stupid person.^[2][7]

Adjective

1. (colloquial) Stupid, foolish.^[2][5]

Word family

• blockheaded
• blockheadedly
• blockheadedness
• blockheadism

Related words

• block
• head

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
5. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins