simpleton
(ˈsɪmp(ə)ltən)
[A fanciful formation on simple a. Cf. idleton in the Eng. Dial. Dict.]
1. One who is deficient in sense or intelligence; a silly or foolish person; a fool.
Characterized by Johnson (1755) as ‘a low word’.
| 1650 B. Discollim. 28 If a solemn Synod may erre, what may a single Simpleton doe? 1672 Rosemary & Bayes 16 It was a wish of St. Austin.., but I see now that the Father was a simpleton. 1716 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) V. 281 This Morning preached at S{supt}. Marie's M{supr}. Poynter (that Dull Simpleton) of Merton Coll. 1769 Junius Lett. xxv. (1788) 139 The silly invectives of every simpleton who writes in a newspaper. 1801 M. Edgeworth Angelina iv. (1832) 82 A simpleton of sixteen is more an object of mercy than a simpleton of sixty. 1878 C. Gibbon For the King xvii, He is something of a simpleton, and did not recognise you. |
| attrib. 1859 Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. II. viii. 158 The simpleton hero of one novel has no connexion with the simpleton hero of another. |
2. U.S. The American dunlin or sandpiper,
Tringa (
Pelidna)
pacifica.
Hence (chiefly as nonce-words)
simpleˈtonian,
simpleˈtonic,
ˈsimpletonish adjs., characteristic of or resembling (that of) a simpleton;
simpleˈtonianism,
ˈsimpletonism, character or quality characteristic of a simpleton.
| 1847 Lady Eastlake Jrnls. & Corr. (1895) I. 212 Simple and childlike, and simpletonish in his manner. 1848 Blackw. Mag. LXIV. 467 The eccentricity of the baronet, the overtrust and the mistrust of mankind,..are of the simpletonian school. 1860 Mayhew Upper Rhine 331 That childish or simpletonic quality which..young gentlemen..denominate as ‘verdant’. 1863 Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. xvi. 394 His imagination was beguiling him with some image of captivating simpletonism; frequently and oddly confounded with simplicity. 1869 Pall Mall G. 13 Oct. 11 It is a pity to mark the decay of simpletonianism, even in the fashion of dolls. |