Sunday Word: Dunderhead

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

dunderhead [duhn-der-hed]

noun:
a stupid or slow-witted person; blockhead; numbskull.

Examples:

The Neat FM presenter also said that Prince Tsegah is a dunderhead, who does not deserve a minute of his time. (Ola Michael replies The Don, says he does not think with his head, The Guardian, February 2021)

Later, she called the cops on her boyfriend again; this time the dunderhead copped an aggravating attitude with the officers. (Larry Hobbs, CrimeScene, 7.03, The Brunswick News, July 2021)

I never saw such a dunderhead; can't you understand anything at all? (Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court)

I’d like to say that this coat can only be appreciated by someone with a sharpened aesthetic sense - not a dunderhead like you! (Doctor Who, 'The One Doctor' [audio drama] 2001)

Origin:

1620s, from head; the first element is obscure, perhaps from Middle Dutch doner, donder 'to thunder' (compare blunderbuss). Dunder also was a native dialectal variant of thunder. In the same sense were dunder-whelp (1620s); dunderpate (1754); dunderpoll (1801). (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Comments

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

Let’s not forget a famous and comparatively recent use:

I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.”

(J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 26 July 1997.)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I love that :)