different between rattlebrain vs numskull

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.

English

Alternative forms

• numbskull

Etymology

numb (“deadened”) +? skull

Noun

numskull (plural numskulls)

1. (derogatory) A dunce, mentally dull or stupid person.
2. (derogatory) A person who refuses to learn or grow mentally.

   That numskull will never learn how to compose a letter.

3. A traditional name for a fool who serves as the butt of jokes about stupidity.

Synonyms

• airhead
• bubblehead
• thickhead
• See also Thesaurus:fool
• See also Thesaurus:idiot

Derived terms

• numpty, numptie

Translations

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967