dumb

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dʌm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dumb, inherited from Old English dumb (“mute, unable to speak”),^[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dumb, dull”),^[2] also the source of Old Saxon dumb, Old Norse dumbr and Gothic dumbs, all “mute”, Dutch dom “stupid” and Old High German tumb “mute, stupid, deaf”, now German dumm “stupid”.^[2][3][4] Its earlier origin is uncertain:^[4] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *dhumbho- (“dark”),^[3] and Etymonline suggests PIE *dheubh- “confusion, stupefaction”, from the root *dheu- “dust, mist, smoke”.^[2] The b has probably been silent since the 13th century.^[2] It is related to deaf.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unable to speak, of people: about 1000 in the OED and Barnhart, in Ælfric and the Old English Gospels;^[6][3] of animals, lacking speech, also in Old English.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Speechless animals came to be thought of as without intellect (about 1200),^[2] and the sense “stupid, foolish” is recorded probably before 1200, in Layamon.^[3] Etymonline suggests the change went through the notion of not responding out of ignorance.^[2] The foolish sense was only occasional in Middle English, and its modern use, from 1823, seems to owe much to German dumm, especially through Pennsylvania German.^[2] In German that became the only sense, while “mute” is stumm.^[2] Meanwhile the old sense spread to things: silent contrivances, as in dumbwaiter (1749) and dumbbell (1711), named after a device like a church bell without the bell.^[3][7] Dummy (late 16th century) is from the same word.^[7] The verb dumb down is by 1933.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – unable to speak.^[6][3]
• a. 1200 – stupid, foolish.^[3]
• a. 1300 – temporarily speechless.^[6]
• 1561 – dumb show.^[3]
• 1711 – dumbbell.^[3]
• 1749 – dumbwaiter.^[3]
• 1823 – the modern use for stupid.^[2]
• 1933 – dumb down.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. (informal) Stupid or showing a lack of intelligence.
2. (often offensive) Unable to speak; mute.
3. Temporarily unable to speak, as from shock or fear.
4. Unwilling to speak; silent.

Verb

1. dumb down: to make simpler or less intellectually demanding.

Word family

• dumbly
• dumbness
• dumbo
• dummy
• dumbbell
• dumbfound
• dumbhead
• dumbstruck

Related words

• deaf

Usage notes

Dumb is the general word for lacking the power of speech, while mute often implies silence that is chosen or imposed, and inarticulate a failure to speak clearly or effectively.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin