■ noun a person who is slow at learning.
Word History
Dunce was originally a name for a follower of the 13th-century Scottish theologian John Duns Scotus, whose system of theology and philosophy, known as scholasticism , with its emphasis on tradition and dogma, was taught in universities throughout medieval Europe. The followers of Duns Scotus, known as Duns men, ~ men, or ~s , were ridiculed by 16th-century humanists and reformers as hair-splitting pedants and enemies of learning, and thus the word ~ acquired its negative connotations.