A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's cap, or dunce's hat, is a pointy hat. In popular culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with a D or the word "dunce", and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment by public humiliation for stupid or lazy behavior. To get a dunce hat, take a solid triangle and successively glue together all three sides with the indicated orientation. ... The tigrakhauda (Orthocorybantians) relief of eastern stairs of the Apadana of Persepolis. ... A dunce is a person incapable of learning. ... Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons (imprisonment was long unusual as a punishment, rather a method of coercion). ...

While this is now a rare practice, it is frequently depicted in popular culture such as animated television series. Such headwear is most prevalent in Western culture but achieved a certain prevalence in modern China in connection with various elements of the communist movement. An animated series or cartoon series is a television series produced by means of animation. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ...

A very similar practice on the European continent was a paper headdress known as donkey's ears, as a symbol of 'asinine' stupidity. Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons (imprisonment was long unusual as a punishment, rather a method of coercion). ...

Origins

The word "dunce" was originally a reference to John Duns Scotus, a 13th century scholastic theologian, whose books on theology, philosophy, and logic were University textbooks. His followers, termed "Dunsmen" or "Dunses", were later challenged about their hodge-podge system of hair-splitting and needless distinctions. Their obstinacy over an increasing array of challenges posed first by humanists and then by reformers, led to the term "dunses" to denote fools in general. Blessed John Duns Scotus (c. ... Scholasticism comes from the Latin word scholasticus, which means that [which] belongs to the school, and is the school of philosophy taught by the academics (or schoolmen) of medieval universities circa 1100–1500. ... Hodge-Podge the rabbit is a fictitious character from Berke Breatheds comic strip Bloom County. ... Renaissance humanism (often designated simply as humanism) was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century. ... “Reformation” redirects here. ...

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition), "dunce cap" didn't enter the English language until after the term "dunce" was so transformed. John Ford's 1624 play The Sun's Darling is the first recorded mention of the related term "dunce table," a table provided for duller or poorer students; "dunce cap" appears first in the 1840 novel The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is the most successful dictionary of the English language, (not to be confused with the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, formerly New Oxford Dictionary of English, of... John Ford (baptized April 17, 1586 - c. ... (Redirected from 1624 in literature) See also: 16th century in literature, other events of the 17th century, 1700 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1839 in literature, other events of 1840, 1841 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel by Charles Dickens. ... “Dickens” redirects here. ...

The Straight Dope notes that Duns Scotus accepted the wearing of conical hats to increase learning, in the belief that it would funnel knowledge to its wearer (and perhaps in emulation of wizards). Cecil Adams is the pen name of the author of The Straight Dope since 1973, a popular question and answer column published in The Chicago Reader, syndicated in thirty newspapers in the United States and Canada, and available online. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Trivia

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• In NetHack, the dunce cap is one of two types of conical hats, the other being the cornuthaum. Due to subtleties of how they work, dunce caps protect against death from Mind flayer brain-sucking attacks. [1]

• The dunce cap was featured on the game show Win Ben Stein's Money; contestants were forced to wear a dunce cap when they answered a question in the form of a question (à la Jeopardy!).

• The dunce cap was also featured on the game show Street Smarts.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... This article is about the role-playing game. ... In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, illithids (commonly known as mind flayers) are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. ... Win Ben Steins Money logo Win Ben Steins Money was an American television game show that ran from July 28, 1997 to May 8, 2003 on Comedy Central. ... “Jeopardy” redirects here. ... Streetwise has a number of different meanings: wisdom in a particular subject; knowledge of youth culture, also called Street; practical knowledge, as opposed to ivory tower or bookish knowledge, knowledge on how to succeed through life, or generally how to avoid the pitfalls; it can be used in a euphemistic...

See also

• Dunce hat (topology)
• Pointy hat

To get a dunce hat, take a solid triangle and successively glue together all three sides with the indicated orientation. ... The tigrakhauda (Orthocorybantians) relief of eastern stairs of the Apadana of Persepolis. ...

External links

• "What's the origin of the dunce cap?", from The Straight Dope website
• Notes from an Introduction to Topology course, from a University of Oklahoma website, with depictions of the topological dunce hat