dumb

来自PIE*dheu, 烟尘，烟雾，词源同dust, deaf, dull. 引申词义笨拙的，哑的。

dumb

dumb: [OE] The notion underlying dumb is of ‘sensory or mental impairment’. It goes back to a nasalized version of prehistoric Indo-European *dheubh-, denoting ‘confusion, stupefaction, or dizziness’, which was also the ultimate source of English deaf. This developed two stands of meaning. The first, through association of ‘sensory or mental impairment’ and ‘slowwittedness’, led to forms such as German dumm and Dutch dom, which mean ‘stupid’ (the use of dumb to mean ‘stupid’ did not develop until the 19th century, in American English, presumably under the influence of the German and Dutch adjectives).

The other was semantic specialization to a particular sort of mental impairment, the inability to speak, which produced Gothic dumbs, Old Norse dumbr, and English dumb. (The German word for ‘dumb’, stumm, is related to English stammer and stumble, as are Dutch stom and Swedish stum.) Dummy [16] is a derivative; it originally meant ‘dumb person’.
=> deaf, dummy

dumb (adj.)

Old English dumb "silent, unable to speak," from PIE *dheubh- "confusion, stupefaction, dizziness," from root *dheu- (1) "dust, mist, vapor, smoke," and related notions of "defective perception or wits."

The Old English, Old Saxon (dumb), Gothic (dumbs), and Old Norse (dumbr) forms of the word meant only "mute, speechless;" in Old High German (thumb) it meant both this and "stupid," and in Modern German this latter became the only sense. Meaning "foolish, ignorant" was occasionally in Middle English, but modern use (1823) comes from influence of German dumm. Related: dumber; dumbest.

Applied to silent contrivances, hence dumbwaiter. As a verb, in late Old English, "to become mute;" c. 1600, "to make mute." To dumb (something) down is from 1933.

1. The questions were set up to make her look dumb.

问题这么设计，就是为了让她出丑。

2. The snowy street, like the church, assumed a dumb, lifeless aspect.

积雪覆盖的街道就像教堂一样，显得沉闷、毫无生气。

3. An expression of dumb recognition wiggled across her features.

她不语，从她脸上掠过的一丝表情可知她是认得的。

4. It's the media that's dumb.

让人恼火的是媒体。

5. I've met a lot of dumb people.

我遇到过很多笨蛋。