Dunce

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Dunce is a mild insult in English meaning "a person who is slow at learning or stupid". The etymology given by Richard Stanyhurst is that the word is derived from the name of the Scottish Scholastic theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus.[1]

Dunce cap[]

"Dunce hat" redirects here. For the topological space, see Dunce hat (topology).
A young boy wearing a dunce cap in class, from a staged photo c. 1906

A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's cap or dunce's hat, is a pointed hat, formerly used as an article of discipline in schools in Europe and the United States.[2][3] In modern pedagogy, punishments like dunce caps have fallen out of favor.[4]

According to The Straight Dope, Duns Scotus recommended the wearing of conical hats to stimulate the brain – so-called "thinking caps".[5] However, the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) records that the term "dunce cap" itself did not enter the English language until after the term "dunce" had become a synonym for "fool" or "dimwit". In fact, "dunce cap" is not recorded before the 1833 travel book America, and the Americans by James Boardman.[6]

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Notes[]

  1. ^ Jeaffreson, John Cordy (1870). A Book About Clergy. Hurst and Blackett. p. 81. ISBN 9780598437297.
  2. ^ Chico, Beverly (3 October 2013). "The Dunce Cap". Hats and Headwear around the World: A Cultural Encyclopaedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-61069-063-8.
  3. ^ Grundhauser, Eric (10 September 2015). "The Dunce Cap Wasn't Always So Stupid". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  4. ^ Ryback, David (1993). "Eastern Sources of Invitational Education". Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice. Atlanta, Georgia. 2 (2): 79.
  5. ^ Gaudere (21 June 2000). "What's the origin of the dunce cap?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  6. ^ Boardman, James (1833). America, and the Americans. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman. p. 101.

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