dunce
noun/dʌns/
/dʌns/
(old-fashioned)- a person, especially a child at school, who is stupid or slow to learnOxford Collocations DictionaryDunce is used before these nouns:
- cap
Word Originearly 16th cent.: originally an epithet for a follower of John Duns Scotus (c. 1265-1308), whose followers were ridiculed by 16th-cent. humanists and reformers as enemies of learning.Want to learn more?
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dunce