DUNCE


Meaning of DUNCE in English

n. a person slow at learning; a dullard. dunce's cap a paper cone formerly put on the head of a dunce at school as a mark of disgrace.

[ John Duns Scotus, scholastic theologian d. 1308, whose followers were ridiculed by 16th-c. humanists and reformers as enemies of learning ]

Concise Oxford English dictionary.      Краткий оксфордский словарь английского языка.