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DUNCE

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 671 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DUNCE , a slow or stupid See also:

person, one incapable of learning. The word is derived from the name of the See also:great schoolman, See also:John See also:Duns Scotus, whose See also:works on See also:logic, See also:theology and See also:philosophy were accepted See also:text-books in the See also:universities from the 14th See also:century. " Duns " or Dunsman " was a name See also:early applied by their opponents to the followers of Duns Scotus, the Scotists, and hence was See also:equivalent to one devoted to sophistical distinctions and subtleties. When, in the 16th century, the Scotists obstinately opposed the " new learning," the See also:term " duns " or " dunce " became, in the mouths of the humanists and reformers, a term of abuse, a synonym for one incapable of scholarship, a dull blockhead.

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