dunce

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dʌns/^[1]

Etymology

From the name of John Duns Scotus (c. 1265–1308),^[2][3][4][5] the Scottish theologian and philosopher, supposedly born at Duns in Berwick.^[2] His followers were called Duns men or Dunses,^[6][7][2] and in the 16th century humanist writers ridiculed his teachings and his followers as hair-splitting sophists.^{[7][2][3][4][5]}

Earliest recorded meaning

As a name for a follower of Duns Scotus, a Scotist or schoolman, in Duns man (1527).^[6][7][2]

Semantic evolution

The Scotists controlled the universities until the Reformation;^[2] by the 1520s the humanist reaction against medieval theology had made Duns Scotus the type of the hair-splitting scholastic, and his name became a general reproach for obstinate or sophistical opponents.^[2] From there it passed to someone whose book learning had left him dull, a dull pedant (1579),^[6] and then to anyone who showed no ability to learn, a dull-witted person.^[2][6][7] Merriam-Webster dates this last sense to 1570 and Etymonline to the 1570s, while the OED's first quotation is from 1577–87 and Barnhart gives 1577.^[4][2][6][7]

Timeline

• 1520s – Duns man, a follower of Duns Scotus; the OED and Barnhart date it to 1527.^[2][6][7]
• 1530 – a copy of the works of Duns Scotus; a textbook of scholastic theology or logic.^[6]
• 1570s – a dull-witted, stupid person.^[2][4][7][6]
• 1577 – a Scotist; a hair-splitting reasoner.^[6]
• 1579 – a dull pedant.^[6]
• 1611 – verb, to puzzle someone, or make a dunce of them.^[6]
• 1792 – dunce's cap.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A slow-witted, stupid or ignorant person.

Word family

• duncical
• duncishly
• dunce cap
• duncish

Related words

• foolscap

References

1. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. [1] [2] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins