dolt

Etymology

It is apparently from English a variant of dold, "stupid, dull", recorded from the 15th century,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} perhaps influenced by Middle English dulte and dolte, past participles of dullen (“to dull; to become dazed or stupid”).^[2][3] The American Heritage Dictionary, Klein and Skeat derive it directly from that participle, dult (“dulled”), from dul (“dull”),^[7][8][9] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also take it as perhaps a variant of the participle dulled.^[10][11] The OED relates it to Old English dol (“dull, foolish”), Middle English dol and doll, and to dold, and compares the -t of the Middle English participle.^[6][12][13] Weekley suggested a contraction of dullard.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dull, stupid fellow: 1543, in John Bale's Yet Course at Romyshe Foxe, which also has doltish.^[6] Barnhart dates the noun to 1551, with doltish from 1543,^[2][15] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1553.^[12] The OED thinks it may be older in dialect.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense since the 16th century.^[6][10] In the same period it was briefly a verb, to make a fool of someone or call them a dolt (1553), and to play the fool (1573);^[6][10] the transitive use lasted into the early 19th century.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as a heavy, stupid fellow, a blockhead, with quotations from Sidney, Shakespeare's Othello and Hudibras.^[16]

Timeline

• 1543 – a dull, stupid fellow; also doltish.^[6][2]
• 1553 – verb, to make a dolt of, to call someone a dolt (obsolete by 1818).^[6][10]
• 1573 – verb, to act like a dolt.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stupid or foolish person; a blockhead or numskull: Only a dolt would leave the keys in the car.^[13][12][6]

Verb

1. (obsolete, 1553–1818) To make a fool of; to call someone a dolt.^[6][10]

Word family

• doltish
• doltishly
• doltishness

Related words

• dull
• dold
• dullard
• doldrums

Usage notes

Collins labels the word derogatory.^[13] In West Yorkshire dialect a dolt was also a lump of something soft and sticky, and in the plural, leftover food.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)