释义 |
▪ I. dunce, n.|dʌns| Also 6–7 duns(e. [An application of the name of John Duns Scotus, the celebrated scholastic theologian, called ‘Doctor Subtilis’ the Subtle Doctor, who died in 1308. His works on theology, philosophy, and logic, were textbooks in the Universities, in which (as at Oxford) his followers, called Scotists, were a predominating Scholastic sect, until the 16th c., when the system was attacked with ridicule, first by the humanists, and then by the reformers, as a farrago of needless entities, and useless distinctions. The Dunsmen or Dunses, on their side, railed against the ‘new learning’, and the name Duns or Dunce, already synonymous with ‘cavilling sophist’ or ‘hair-splitter’, soon passed into the sense of ‘dull obstinate person impervious to the new learning’, and of ‘blockhead incapable of learning or scholarship’.
1530Tindale Answ. to More Wks. (1573) 278/1 Remember ye not how..the old barkyng curres, Dunces disciples & lyke draffe called Scotistes, the children of darkenesse, raged in euery pulpit agaynst Greke Latin and Hebrue. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. (1567) 101 a, Vse the quiddities of Dunce, to set forth Gods misteries: & you shal se thignorant either fall a slepe, or els bid you farewell. 1679Hobbes Behemoth i. Wks. 1840 VI. 214 Peter Lombard, who first brought in..the learning called School-divinity..was seconded by John Scot of Duns..whom any ingenious reader, not knowing what was the design, would judge to have been two of the most egregious blockheads in the world, so obscure and senseless are their writings. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 673 That the said Winter should study the Dunces Logick Questions, meaning I suppose the Logick Questions of John Dunse.] †1. The personal name Duns used attrib. Duns man, a disciple or follower of Duns Scotus, a Scotist, a schoolman; hence, a subtle, sophistical reasoner. So Duns learning, Duns prelate. Obs.
1527Tindale Par. Wicked Mammon Wks. (1573) 88 A Duns man would make xx. distinctions. a1540Barnes Free Will Wks. (1573) 267 Now where will our Duns men bring in their Bonum conatum? 1546Confut. Shaxton F iij (T.), The pure worde of God, voied of all the dregges of Dunsse learning and man's traditions. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 479 The Dunce-men and Sophisters..the inuenters and finders, yea, and the verie makers of Purgatorie. 1626W. Sclater Exp. 2 Thess. (1629) 184 That selfe-conceited dunce criticke. 1641Milton Ch. Govt. v. (1851) 115 It were a great folly to seeke for counsell..from a Dunce Prelat. †2. A copy of the works of Duns Scotus; a textbook of scholastic theology or logic embodying his teaching; a comment or gloss by or after the manner of Scotus. Obs.
1530Tindale Pentat. To Rdr. 3 They which in tymes paste were wont to loke on no more Scripture then they founde in their duns or soch like develysh doctryne. 1536Leyton to Cromwell in Suppr. Monast. (Camden) 71 We have sett Dunce in Bocardo, and have utterly banisshede hym Oxforde for ever, with all his blinde glosses. Ibid., The second time we came to New College..we found all the great quadrant court full of the leaves of Dunce, the wind blowing them into every corner. 1607Marston What You Will ii. i, My spaniel slept, whilst I bausd leaves, Tossd ore the dunces, por'd on the old print Of titled wordes. 1607Tourneur Rev. Trag. iii. iv. Wks. 1878 II. 78 A villanous Duns upon the letter, knauish exposition. 1620Middleton Chaste Maid iii. ii, Brought him in league with logicke, And red the Dunces to him. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. ii. ix. (1810) 333 I will write as I have read in my dunses of Logicke. 3. A disciple or adherent of Duns Scotus, a Duns man, a Scotist; a hair-splitting reasoner; a cavilling sophist. Obs. exc. Hist.
1577Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. i. in Holinshed (1587) 9/2 Duns, which tearme is so triuiall and common in all schools, that whoso surpasseth others either in cauilling sophistrie, or subtill philosophie, is forthwith nickenamed a Duns. 1611Florio, Scotista, a follower of Scotus, as we say a Dunce. †4. One whose study of books has left him dull and stupid, or imparted no liberal education; a dull pedant. Obs.
1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 47 If one be hard in conceiuing, they pronounce him a dowlt: if giuen to studie, they proclaime him a dunce. 1592G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 25 You that purpose with great summes of study and candles to purchase the worshipfull names of Dunses and Dodipoles may closely sitt or sokingly ly at your bookes. 1614T. Adams Devil's Banquet 322 When a man courts to be a Doctor in all Arts, hee lightly proues a dunce in many. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xviii. 199 A dunce, void of learning but full of books. 1742Pope Dunc. iv. 90 A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits. 5. One who shows no capacity for learning; a dull-witted, stupid person; a dullard, blockhead.
1577–87Holinshed Chron. Scot. 461/1 But now in our age it is growne to be a common prouerbe in derision, to call such a person as is senselesse or without learning a Duns, which is as much as a foole. 1611Cotgr., Lourdaut, a sot, dunce, dullard. Viedaze,..an old dunce, doult, blockhead. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. iv. 202 I confess the greatest Dunces have commonly the best Imployments, and many abler men before the Mast. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull iv. i, Blockhead! dunce! ass! coxcomb! were the best epithets he gave poor John. 1852Blackie Stud. Lang. 21 Let the hopeless dunce of the Grammar School be tried with Natural History. 1866R. W. Dale Disc. Spec. Occ. ii. 39 As some boys remain dunces though they are sent to the best schools. 6. attrib. and Comb., as dunce-corps; † dunce-table, a table provided for duller or poorer students in some inns of court; dunce's cap, a cap of conical shape, sometimes marked with a capital D, and placed on the head of a dunce at school.
1624Ford Sun's Darling v. i, His father, me thinks, should be one of the Dunce-table, and one that never drunk strong beer in's life, but at festival-times. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xxiv, And on a small shelf, the dunce's cap. 1847M. Howitt Ballads, etc. 383 Or, learning's serf, puts day by day, Dunce-corps through classic exercises. ▪ II. † dunce, v. Obs. [f. prec. n.] trans. To puzzle, pose, prove to be a dunce; to make a dunce of.
1611Cotgr., Metagraboulizé, puzzled in, dunced vpon. Metagraboulizer, to dunce upon, to puzzle, or (too much) beat the braines about. 1649R. Hodges Plain. Direct. 66 Boys may be easily taught the Latine. Why should children therefore be wearied and dunced out many yeares, and yet in the end fail? 1658W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. verse 14. vi. 71 'Tis time for the Scholar to throw off his gown..when every Schoolboy is able to dunce and pose him. 1662Ibid. verse 17. xxiv. 202 Thy own reason..which is dunced and pozed with so many secrets in Nature. |