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The irony of dunce lies in the fact that this synonym of dullard is derived from the name of one of the most brilliant thinkers of the Middle Ages, John Duns Scotus. So ingenious were the theological and metaphysical speculations of this thinker that he was given the name “the Subtle Doctor.” However, in the 16th century, his followers became a conservative element in English universities, and they tended to resist the new learning of humanism. As result, dunsman and the shortened form duns (later respelled as we have it today), became terms of scorn, meaning first “sophist” or “pedant” and gradually taking on the modern sense “slow-witted person.”
Examples of dunce in a Sentence
Tim Ellis, Forbes, 26 Nov. 2024
Between the courts taking forever, the Potawatomi taking advantage and Waukegan taking dunce lessons, the Full House development was starting to look like a long shot.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 25 Feb. 2025
The peewee population interacted with each other in various settings and included bocce bowlers, bare-bottomed peasants, baguette bakers, blind men, the mustachioed mayor, female fishmongers, dunce hat-wearing schoolboys, snail saleswomen, and gobs more characters.
—Gqlshare, Orange County Register, 15 Jan. 2025
Go sit in the dunce corner and put the dunce cap on.
—Dana Rose Falcone, People.com, 25 Dec. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Dunce.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dunce. Accessed 13 Jul. 2025.
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dunce
nounan altered form of earlier duns, from the name John Duns Scotus 1266?–1308 a Scottish religious teacher whose writings came to be ridiculed in the 16th century
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