Today, most of the time someone or something is described as dumb when it shows a lack of thought, like your dumb idea of wearing flip-flops in a snowstorm.
Dumb is the Old English word that means "mute, speechless," and itself came from an even older word dheubh meaning "confusion, stupefaction, dizziness." Today, dumb still means "unable to speak," but it doesn't have anything to do with intelligence. Its other meaning, however, does. If you make a dumb mistake, it's something you could have avoided if you thought it through first.
1 |
adj |
slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity
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2 |
adj |
lacking the power of human speech
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