different between dunce vs rattlebrain

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

Etymology

rattle +? brain

Noun

rattlebrain (plural rattlebrains)

1. A rattlebrained person.
   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 13, [1]

     a genial young fellow enough to look at, and something of a rattlebrain, to all appearance.

   • 1962, Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Slave, translated by Isaac Bachevis Singer and Cecil Hemley, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985, Part III, p. 297,

     My mother, peace be with her, when she called me a rattlebrain, was right.