这些名词都是对做事方式愚蠢或迟钝的人的贬低,是非正式的。Blockhead, dolt和dunce表示由于智力低下导致的愚蠢行为。Blockhead表示一个可预见性地误解信息或有着明显令人生气的主意或态度的迟钝愚蠢的人:a party at which she talked with one insufferable blockhead after another. Dolt专门指由于粗鲁的习俗而缺乏眼光,想象力或觉察力:dolts in the audience who liked his medley of show tunes better than his group of schubert lieder. Dunce 可以表示暂时的智力缺失,而不是永久地失去智力:He made a dunce of himself by getting the name of the guest of honor. Fool和chump根本不需要表示缺乏智力,他们都表示由于许多原因引起的愚蠢或可笑的行为:letting the boys make a fool of him.Chump除了是fool的替代且更加不正式之外,可以表示成为玩笑或骗局的笑柄的人:looking for chumps who could be lured into buying Brooklyn Bridge. Chump还可以是形容任何无经验或普通人的带有严重鄙视的名词:chumps dumb enough to be taken in by tabloid journalism. 剩下的这组名词与chump 的最后一层意思有关,都表示对普通人或简单的人的鄙视。当boob不是fool 一词的非正式替代时,它表示一个被中产阶级价值观损害的人:H.L.Mencken used the term booboisie to refer to class rule of, by, and for boobs. Nincompoop特别与描写愚蠢的人有关,表示一个被胆怯和被动折磨的软弱的人:situation commedies that stereotype hunsbands as bumbling nincompoops. Ninny表以应用于任何性别,但尤其用于愚蠢的女人,表示愚蠢的,矫揉造作的或刻板的行为:a ninny who still writes saccharine poems about butterflies and daffodils. 反义词:sage, savant, wise man. 翻译自《choose the right word》
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