dumb

• IPA^(key): /dʌm/
• Rhymes: -ʌm

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).

The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless, which are found regularly since the 19th century only, probably developed under the influence of German dumm and Dutch dom. Just like the English word, these originally meant "lacking the power of speech", but they developed the mentioned senses early on.

dumb (comparative dumber, superlative dumbest)

1. (dated) Unable to speak; lacking power of speech (kept in "deaf, dumb, and blind").

   Synonyms: mute, speechless, wordless

   His younger brother was born dumb, and communicated with sign language.

   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     to unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures

   • 1884 January 5, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music), “Mighty maiden with a mission”, in Princess Ida‎, London, performed by D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, page 48:

     We are dumb and we would talk

   • 1992, “Opiate”, performed by Tool:

     Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow / What you need is someone strong to guide you

2. (dated) Silent; unaccompanied by words.

   dumb show

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

     Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak
     In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 23”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     O let my books be then the eloquence
     And dumb presagers of my speaking breast […]

   • 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter 2, in Original Stories from Real Life, 1796 printing edition (Children's literature), London: J. Johnson, pages 10–11:

     The country people frequently ſay,—How can you treat a poor dumb beaſt ill; and a ſtreſs is very properly laid on the word dumb; for dumb they appear to thoſe who do not obſerve their looks and geſtures; but God, who takes care of every thing, underſtands their language...

   • 1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry:

     to pierce into the dumb past

3. (informal, derogatory, especially of a person) Extremely stupid.

   Synonyms: feeble-minded, idiotic, moronic, stupid; see also Thesaurus:stupid

   You are so dumb! You don't even know how to make toast!

4. (figuratively) Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.

   Synonyms: banal, brainless, dopey, silly, stupid, ridiculous, vulgar

   This is dumb! We're driving in circles! We should have asked for directions an hour ago!

   Brendan had the dumb job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.

5. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a colour.
   • 1720, Daniel Defoe, The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton:

     Her stern, which was painted of a dumb white or dun color.

From Middle English dumben, from Old English dumbian (more commonly in compound ādumbian (“to become mute or dumb; keep silence; hold one’s peace”)), from Proto-Germanic *dumbijaną, *dumbōną (“to be silent, become dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). Cognate with German verdummen (“to become dumb”).

dumb (third-person singular simple present dumbs, present participle dumbing, simple past and past participle dumbed)

1. (dated) To silence.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     […] what I would have spoke
     Was beastly dumbed by him.

   • 1911, Lindsay Swift, William Lloyd Garrison, page 272:

     The paralysis of the Northern conscience, the dumbing of the Northern voice, were coming to an end.

2. (transitive) To make stupid.
   • 2003, Angela Calabrese Barton, Teaching Science for Social Justice, page 124:

     I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.

3. (transitive) To represent as stupid.
   • 2004, Stephen Oppenheimer, The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa, page 107:

     Bad-mouthing Neanderthals . . . is symptomatic of a need to exclude and even demonize. . . . I suggest that the unproven dumbing of the Neanderthals is an example of the same cultural preconception.

4. (transitive) To reduce the intellectual demands of.
   • 2002, Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing, page 126:

     The ensuing storm caused the department to lower the bar—amid protests that this was dumbing the test down—so that only 80 percent of urban kids would fail.

• domb, doumb, dowmb, dom, domm, dum, doum, dowm, domp, doump

From Old English dumb.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdum(b)/, /ˈduːm(b)/

dumb (plural and weak singular dumbe)

1. Lacking or failing to display the faculty of voice:
   1. Unspeaking; unable to speak or having muteness.
   2. (substantive) A mute; one who can't speak.
   3. Temporarily unable to speak due to strong emotions.
   4. Unwilling or reluctant to speak; not speaking.
2. Powerless, ineffectual (either inherently or due to events)
3. Unknowledgeable; having no understanding or sense.
4. (of animals) Unwilling or unable to make a noise; quiet or silent.
5. (rare) Unrevealing, useless; having no important messages or lessons.
6. (rare) Having nothing to keep one busy or engaged.
7. (rare, figuratively) Refusing to preach or evangelise.
8. (rare, figuratively) Refusing to be conceited or vainglorious.

• dombenesse
• dumben

• English: dumb
• Scots: dumb

• “dǒmb, dǒumb, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-04-27.

From Proto-West Germanic *dumb.

• IPA^(key): /dumb/

dumb

1. mute, dumb (unable to speak)
2. (substantive) a mute
   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, Luke 11:14

     Þā hē ūt ādrāf þā dēofolsēocnesse, þā spræc se dumba.

     When he drove out the demon, the mute person spoke.

• dumbnes

• Middle English: dumb
  • Scots: dumb
  • English: dumb