My unlinkable "The Oxford Dictionary Of English Etymology" (dead tree edition) offers a bit more:
dunce disciple of Duns Scotus; dull pedant; dullard, blockhead xvi. orig. Duns, name of John Duns Scotus (died 1308), celebrated scholastic theologian, known as the Subtle Doctor, whose works were textbooks, and whose disciples, called Scotists, formed a predominant scholastic sect at universities until they were attacked by humanists and reformers; occurring first in contemptuous allusions in Tyndale's works in phr. Duns men, Dunces disciples, whence duns, dunce was evolved in the above senses.The dunce cap is no longer used in caricature, but occasionally, scholarly pedants use similar symbolism to derisively mock students of human nature.
13 comments:
So he wasn't dumb, but a little too smart.
Well, I've tried to coin terms named after people. It's hard to get them to stick without a consensus.
A calumny on a great mind, by men who were no better in the pedantry department than the man they slandered.
The first thing that popped into my head is that Duns Scotus wasn't a dunce (in the modern sense of the word) he was a scholastic with the "wrong" knowledge. That's probably how the word was used by his opponents. Today...well, today I doubt any student is ever called a dunce cause it would injure his precious self-esteem. But in the dark dark days before John Dewey brought the light - cough cough - the dunce was the kid who when asked a question in class his tongue hung out and he was made to sit in the dunce or dunce's corner and turned into a CONEHEAD!
later extended to any dull-witted student.
It became to mean the relative opposite of how/what it originally was understood?
It negatively evolved.
And if it did, it follows that it did so in order to accommodate ourselves. Why else would it evolve that way?
I've never seen someone actually wearing a dunce cap.
That's Blessed John Duns Scotus, by the way.
FYI, a "blessed" is basically a saint who is recommended for devotion only in part of the Church; the final step is "canonization," which means, among other things, the saint is recommended for universal veneration.
You have to admit, "amiable dunce" is one of your better put-downs.
Don't lynch me, but I am boycotting this thread.
I would never lynch you, Sixty. Would you like some more rope?
You are such a jackanape, CL. I hope none of your comments are ever bowdlerized for their malapropisms, as I know that writing them is a herculean effort.
Now pardon me while I wash a praline down with some grog.
I shoulda written "Spoonerisms" - that is kore in meeping with The Chicken's style.
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