different between dunce vs jackass

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

English

Alternative forms

• jack-ass

Etymology

From jack +? ass

Pronunciation

Noun

jackass (countable and uncountable, plural jackasses)

1. A male donkey.

   Synonym: jack

2. (chiefly US) A foolish or stupid person.

   Synonyms: fool, idiot, dink, dope, buffoon

3. (chiefly US) An inappropriately rude or obnoxious person.

   Synonyms: jerk, asshole, bastard, bitch

   • 2004 King of the Hill (TV, season 8.8)

     Bobby, only jackasses go around saying how much money they make.

4. (US, slang, uncountable) A kind of bootleg liquor.
   • Richard Mendelson, From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009, p. 82)

     As the vintner Louis Foppiano recalled years later, Sonoma County during Prohibition became a center for bootlegging, not of wine, but of spirits. 'There were some big stills hidden up in the hills of Sonoma, some producing five hundred gallons of Jackass [spirits made from spring water and sugar] a day.'

   • Vivienne Sosnowski, When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America's Wine Country (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, p. 110)

     By now the wine counties were rife with the activity of the illegal wine trade and the force of the Prohibition Unit was hustling to keep up. At the start of the year, Officer William Navas had staged a raid on the dining room at Healdsburg's Hotel Sotoyome and discovered 'jackass' brandy […]

Derived terms

Translations

Proper noun

jackass

1. (poker slang) a jack and an ace as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em due to phonetic similarity

Verb

jackass (third-person singular simple present jackasses, present participle jackassing, simple past and past participle jackassed)

1. (rare) to behave very obnoxiously

See also

• Jackass on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• Rich McComas (2004-12-05) , “Holdem Secrets - 400+ Pocket Cards”, in (Please provide the title of the work)?^[1], retrieved 2008-08-07