different between dumb vs eccentric

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?m/
• Rhymes: -?m

Etymology 1

From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ewb?- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).

The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless, which are found regularly since the 19th century only, probably developed under the influence of German dumm and Dutch dom. Just like the English word, these originally meant "lacking the power of speech", but they developed the mentioned senses early on.

Adjective

dumb (comparative dumber, superlative dumbest)

1. (dated) Unable to speak; lacking power of speech (kept in "deaf, dumb, and blind").

   Synonyms: dumbstruck, mute, speechless, wordless

   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     to unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures

2. (dated) Silent; unaccompanied by words.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act II, sc. 4:

     Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak

     In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 23:

     O let my books be then the eloquence

     And dumb presagers of my speaking breast ...

   • 1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry

     to pierce into the dumb past

3. (informal, derogatory, especially of a person) Extremely stupid.

   Synonyms: feeble-minded, idiotic, moronic, stupid; see also Thesaurus:stupid

4. (figuratively) Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.

   Synonyms: banal, brainless, dopey, silly, stupid, ridiculous, vulgar

5. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a colour.
   • 1720, Daniel Defoe, The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

     Her stern, which was painted of a dumb white or dun color.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English dumben, from Old English dumbian (more commonly in compound ?dumbian (“to become mute or dumb; keep silence; hold one’s peace”)), from Proto-Germanic *dumbijan?, *dumb?n? (“to be silent, become dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ewb?- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). Cognate with German verdummen (“to become dumb”).

Verb

dumb (third-person singular simple present dumbs, present participle dumbing, simple past and past participle dumbed)

1. (dated) To silence.
   • 1607, William Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. 5:

     ... what I would have spoke

     Was beastly dumbed by him.
2. (transitive) To make stupid.
3. (transitive) To represent as stupid.
4. (transitive) To reduce the intellectual demands of.

Derived terms

Middle English

Alternative forms

• domb, doumb, dowmb, dom, domm, dum, doum, dowm, domp, doump

Etymology

From Old English dumb

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?dum(b)/, /?du?m(b)/

Adjective

dumb (plural and weak singular dumbe)

1. Lacking or failing to display the faculty of voice:
   1. Unspeaking; unable to speak or having muteness.
   2. (substantive) A mute; one who can't speak.
   3. Temporarily unable to speak due to strong emotions.
   4. Unwilling or reluctant to speak; not speaking.
2. Powerless, ineffectual (either inherently or due to events)
3. Unknowledgeable; having no understanding or sense.
4. (of animals) Unwilling or unable to make a noise; quiet or silent.
5. (rare) Unrevealing, useless; having no important messages or lessons.
6. (rare) Having nothing to keep one busy or engaged.
7. (rare, figuratively) Refusing to preach or evangelise.
8. (rare, figuratively) Refusing to be conceited or vainglorious.

Derived terms

• dombenesse
• dumben

Descendants

• English: dumb
• Scots: dumb

References

• “d?mb, d?umb, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-04-27.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *dumb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dumb/

Adjective

dumb

1. mute, dumb (unable to speak)
2. (substantive) a mute
   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, Luke 11:14

Declension

Related terms

• dumbnes

Descendants

• Middle English: dumb
  • Scots: dumb
  • English: dumb

English

Alternative forms

• eccentrick (obsolete)
• excentric
• excentrick (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French excentrique, from Medieval Latin excentricus, from Ancient Greek ????????? (ékkentros, “not having the earth as the center of an orbit”), from ?? (ek, “out”) + ??????? (kéntron, “point”). Equivalent to ex- +? -centric.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?s?nt??k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?s?nt??k/

Adjective

eccentric (comparative more eccentric, superlative most eccentric)

1. Not at or in the centre; away from the centre.
   • 2011, Michael Laver, Ernest Sergenti. Party Competition: An Agent-Based Model, page 125,

     Strikingly, we see that party births tend systematically to be at policy positions that are significantly more eccentric than those of surviving parties, whatever decision rule these parties use.

2. Not perfectly circular; elliptical.

   As of 2008, Margaret had the most eccentric orbit of any moon in the solar system, though Nereid's mean eccentricity is greater.

3. Having a different center; not concentric.
4. (of a person) Deviating from the norm; behaving unexpectedly or differently; unconventional and slightly strange.
   • 1801, Author not named, Fyfield (John), entry in Eccentric Biography; Or, Sketches of Remarkable Characters, Ancient and Modern, page 127,

     He was a man of a most eccentric turn of mind, and great singularity of conduct.

   • 1807, G. H. Wilson (editor), The Eccentric Mirror, Volume 3, page 17,

     Such is not the case with Mr. Martin Van Butchell, one of the most eccentric characters to be found in the British metropolis, and a gentleman of indisputable science and abilities, but whose strange humors and extraordinary habits, have rather tended to obscure than to display the talents he possessed.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture I:

     There can be no doubt that as a matter of fact a religious life, exclusively pursued, does tend to make the person exceptional and eccentric.

   • 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, 2012, unnumbered page,

     Khedron was the only other person in the city who could be called eccentric—and even his eccentricity had been planned by the designers of Diaspar.

5. (physiology, of a motion) Against or in the opposite direction of contraction of a muscle (e.g., such as results from flexion of the lower arm (bending of the elbow joint) by an external force while contracting the triceps and other elbow extensor muscles to control that movement; opening of the jaw while flexing the masseter).
6. Having different goals or motives.
   • a. 1626, Francis Bacon, 1867, Richard Whately (analysis and notes), James R. Boyd (editor), Essay XI: Wisdom for a Man's Self, Lord Bacon's Essays, page 171,

     […] for whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands he crooketh them to his own ends, which must needs be often eccentric to those of his master or state: […]

Usage notes

• (physiology, of motion): Motions that are eccentric or the opposite (concentric) are classified as isotonic (“having equal tension”), the antonym of which is isometric (“retaining equal length”). See also Isometric exercise on Wikipedia.Wikipedia .

Synonyms

• (not at or in the centre): eccentrical, excentrical
• (not perfectly circular): eccentrical, excentrical
• (having a different centre): eccentrical, excentrical
• (deviating from the norm): eccentrical, excentrical, odd, abnormal; see also Thesaurus:eccentric
• (against the contraction of a muscle):
• (having different goals or motives): eccentrical, excentrical

Antonyms

• (against the contraction of a muscle): concentric

Derived terms

• eccentrically
• eccentric anomaly
• eccentric contraction
• eccentric flint
• eccentric hypertrophy

Related terms

• central
• centric
• eccentricity

Translations

Noun

eccentric (plural eccentrics)

1. One who does not behave like others.
   • 1989, Jeffrey Robinson, Rainier and Grace, page 26:

     A tiny, feisty woman who always spoke her mind, Charlotte was an eccentric in the wonderful way that some women from the last century were natural eccentrics.

   • 1998, Michael Gross, Life On The Edge, 2001, page ix,

     Eccentrics live longer, happier, and healthier lives than conformist normal citizens, according to the neuropsychologist David Weeks.

2. (slang) A kook; a person of bizarre habits or beliefs.
3. (geometry) A circle not having the same centre as another.
4. (engineering) A disk or wheel with its axis off centre, giving a reciprocating motion.

Synonyms

• (person who does not behave like others): misfit, nonconformist; see also Thesaurus:maverick
• (person of bizarre habits or beliefs): crank, odd duck, weirdo; see also Thesaurus:strange person

Translations

See also

• acentric