dunce
noun/dʌns/
Etymology 1530, named after John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Scotus was ironically a well-known Scottish thinker; his followers, however, opposed the philosophers of the Renaissance, and thus "dunce" was first used to describe someone rejecting new knowledge in 1530; later, any person deemed stupid.
1
An unintelligent person.
- When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, “Thoughts on Various Subjects”, in The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, volume 5:
- [...] Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight!1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXX: