dunce

来自13世纪苏格兰神学家John Duns Scotus, 其思想后来遭到反对者强烈批判，其追随者也被讽刺为笨蛋，傻瓜。

dunce

dunce: [16] Dunce originated as a contemptuous term for those who continued in the 16th century to adhere to the theological views of the Scottish scholar John Duns Scotus (c. 1265–1308). Renaissance philosophers ridiculed them as narrow-minded hair-splitters, and so before long the application of the word spread metaphorically to any ‘stuffy pedant’ in general, and hence, through the implication of a lack of true intellect, to ‘stupid person’. The conical dunce’s cap seems to have originated in the 19th century.

dunce (n.)

"dullard," 1570s, from earlier Duns disciple "follower of John Duns Scotus" (c. 1265-1308), Scottish scholar of philosophy and theology supposed to have been born at Duns in Berwickshire. By 16c., humanist reaction against medieval theology singled him out as the type of the hairsplitting scholastic. It became a general term of reproach applied to more conservative philosophical opponents by 1520s, later extended to any dull-witted student.

1. He used to be a dunce at school.

他上学时曾是个笨学生.

2. Michael may have been a dunce at mathematics, but he was gifted at languages.

迈克尔在数学上可能不太灵光，但在语言方面很有天赋。

3. I was a dunce at chemistry.

我在化学方面是个劣等生.

4. It is very impolite to call others a dunce.

叫别人蠢材是不礼貌的.

5. Do you take me for a dunce?

你以为我是笨蛋 吗 ?