different between clod vs dunce

English

Etymology

From Middle English clod, a late by-form of clot, from Proto-West Germanic *klott (“mass, ball, clump”). Compare clot and cloud; cognate to Dutch klodde (“rag”) and kloot (“clod”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kl?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kl?d/
• Rhymes: -?d, -??d

Noun

clod (plural clods)

1. A lump of something, especially of earth or clay.
   • 1600, Edward Fairfax (translator), originally published in 1581 by Torquato Tasso, s:Jerusalem Delivered

     clods of blood

   • 1903, Warwick Deeping, Uther and Igraine

     As for yon clod of clay, we will bury it later, lest it should pollute so goodly a pool.

   • 1906, Mark Twain, Eve's Diary

     One of the clods took it back of the ear, and it used language. It gave me a thrill, for it was the first time I had ever heard speech, except my own.

   • 2010, Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest

     "What a bunch of hooey," I said under my breath, tossing a dirt clod over my shoulder against the locked-up garden shed.

2. The ground; the earth; a spot of earth or turf.
   • 1723, Jonathan Swift, Pethox the Great

     the clod where once their sultan's horse hath trod

3. A stupid person; a dolt.
   • 1906, Robert Barr, The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont

     'What was its number?'
     'I don't know, sir.'
     'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest, and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?'

   • 1986 February 14, Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

     So here's a valentine for you, you insensitive clod!!

   • 1998, Chickenpox (episode of South Park TV series)

     Gerald Broflovski: You see Kyle, we humans work as a society, and in order for a society to thrive, we need gods and clods.

   • 2015, "Jail Break" (episode of Steven Universe TV series)

     Peridot: Don't touch that! You clods don't know what you're doing!

4. Part of a shoulder of beef, or of the neck piece near the shoulder.

Translations

Verb

clod (third-person singular simple present clods, present participle clodding, simple past and past participle clodded)

1. (transitive) To pelt with clods.
   • 1906, Mark Twain,Eve's Diary"

     "When I went there yesterday evening in the gloaming it had crept down and was trying to catch the little speckled fishes that play in the pool, and I had to clod it to make it go up the tree again and let them alone."

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jonson to this entry?)

2. (transitive, Scotland) To throw violently; to hurl.
3. To collect into clods, or into a thick mass; to coagulate; to clot.
   • 1610, Template:Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victorie and Triumph

     Clodded in lumps of clay.

References

clod in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• cold, loc'd

Middle English

Alternative forms

• clodd, clodde, cludde

Etymology

A late by-form of clot of unclear provenance. Compare Old English *clod, a form of clot found in compounds and placenames.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?d/

Noun

clod (plural cloddes)

1. A clod; a ball of earth or clay.
2. (rare) A clot or clump of blood.
3. (rare) A shoulder of beef.

Derived terms

• clodred
• clodden
• cloddre

Descendants

• English: clod
• Scots: clod

References

• “clod, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Welsh

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *klutom (“rumour; fame”), from Proto-Indo-European *?lew- (“heard, famous”) (whence also clywed (“to hear”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klo?d/

Noun

clod m (plural clodydd)

1. praise, renown, credit
2. distinction (in exam results)

Derived terms

• anghlod (“dispraise”)
• canu clodydd (“to sing the praises of”)
• clodfawr (“famous, renowned”)
• clodwiw (“praiseworthy”)

Mutation

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “clod”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

English

Etymology

1530, named after John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308).

Scotus was ironically a well-known Scottish thinker. His followers, however, opposed the philosophers of the Renaissance, and thus "dunce" was first used to describe someone rejecting new knowledge in 1530; later, any stupid person.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?ns/
• Rhymes: -?ns

Noun

dunce (plural dunces)

1. An unintelligent person.

   Synonyms: idiot; see also Thesaurus:idiot

   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXX:

     [...] Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight!

Derived terms

• dunce cap
• duncedom
• dunce hat
• duncehood
• duncelike
• duncely
• duncish/dunceish

Translations

Further reading

• “dunce”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

References