Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 80. The word origin today is
dunce. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says that another person
is a dunce, he or she is saying that someone is a stupid person or someone
who has a real difficulty learning. Okay. Let's continue. The origin of this word
comes from a real person, John Duns Scotus. Okay. He was a Scottish Franciscan
philosopher and theologian. At one time he was a greatly respected academic and
even received honors from the church. You know, way, way back a long time ago before
the Renaissance. However, when the Renaissance arrived, many of his ideas,
theories, and methods were criticized and discredited. His followers strongly held
on to you know, his beliefs. Many Renaissance scholars started to refer to
these followers as Duns. Because you know done of course was in his name. His name
was John Duns Scotus. So they started to call him Duns in a derogatory way. You
know, in a way that's you know, criticizing them or making fun of them
in a derogatory way. They considered them to be stupid , slow to learn and change
their minds. So that's really where it comes from. That's why ... that's where the
word dunce actually comes from. Okay. The dunce cap... Now when we see dunce, I
remember years ago. I don't, I don't think this is done anymore and I don't really
remember it being done in school or was it done in first grade ? I'm not sure but I
remember when I was a kid, sometimes you'd see old shows or movies where they
did actually if they if there was a student in the class that was not very
smart or as a way of a punishment, maybe they sit him in a corner. And they
put this little cone-shaped hat on them, and sometimes it actually said the word
dunce on it as kind of a punishment. Today, this would this ... would probably
almost be considered child abuse. I think so.
This is not really done anymore, but it was done at one time. So there was such a
thing as a dunce cap and the dunce cap the idea for the dunce cap, actually came
from John Duns Scotus, So let's continue here. The dunce cap
came about as an idea from John Duns Scotus who believed that the cone
shape ... so it was cone shaped like a cone. A cone shape cap in a metaphysical way,
could collect knowledge and wisdom to the tip. The tip you know, at the top of
the cap and spread it and spread the knowledge into the brain below. All right.
So that's where the idea from the dunce cap actually came from. All right and of
course we just got one example here for dunce. Don't be such a dunce.
There is no way that it could possibly be true. So this is the way we may use it
today. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.