Crossword clues for simpleton
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Simpleton \Sim"ple*ton\, n. [Cf. F. simplet, It. semplicione.] A person of weak intellect; a silly person.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1640s, probably a jocular formation from simple and -ton, suffix extracted from surnames. Compare skimmington, personification of an ill-used spouse, c.1600.
Wiktionary
n. (context pejorative English) A simple person lacking common sense.
WordNet
n. a person lacking intelligence or common sense [syn: simple]
Wikipedia
Simpleton may refer to:
- Simpleton (folklore), a generic character in folklore
- Simpleton (reggae artist), 1990s Jamaican reggae artist
- The Simpleton (1850), Alexei Pisemsky's debut novel
- The Simpleton (Messerschmidt), a sculpture by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
Simpleton (born Christopher Harrison, Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, 1971) was a Jamaican reggae DJ whose claim to fame was the 1992 hit single,"Coca Cola Bottle Shape."
In folklore, a simpleton is a person whose foolish actions are the subject of often-repeated stories. Simpletons are also known as noodles, fools, and gothamites. Folklore often holds, with no basis in fact, that certain towns or countries are thought to be home to large numbers of simpletons. The ancient Greeks told tales of stupid populations in Abdera and other cities; in Germany, men of Schilda are conspicuous in these stories; in Spain hundreds of jokes exist about the supposed foolishness of the people from Lepe; and in England, the village of Gotham in Nottinghamshire is reputed to be populated by simpletons. In Sri Lanka whole districts in the central, southern, and western provinces are credited with being the abode of foolish people.
Tales of simpleton behavior have often been collected into books, and early joke books include many simpleton jokes. In ancient Greece, Hierokles created such a collection. In England, the famous Joe Miller's Jests is highly inclusive of simpleton jokes. In Britain the Irish are often stereotyped as stupid and are the butt of An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman jokes. Books of simpleton tales exist in Persia, Ireland, Turkey, Iceland, Japan, Sicily, and India.
Simpleton tales are huge in number, but many of them share the same notions of simple-minded behavior. Many are repeated, with altered names, settings, characters, etc., in language after language and collection after collection.
A very old such tale from England is
There was a man of Gotham that rode to the market with two bushels of wheat, and because his horse should not be damaged by carrying too great a burden, he was determined to carry the corn himself upon his own neck, and still kept riding upon his horse till he arrived at the end of his journey. Now I will leave you to judge which was the wisest, his horse or himself.
A famous one from ancient Greece is
A man's father having died, the son dutifully took the body to the embalmers. When he returned at the appointed time to take it, there happened to be a number of bodies in the same place, so he was asked if his father had any peculiarity by which his body might be recognised, and the simpleton replied, "He had a cough."
Usage examples of "simpleton".
Orr was a happy and unsuspecting simpleton with a thick mass of wavy polychromatic hair parted down the center.
Sancho, I am comforted, and I believe you will keep it, because in fact, although a simpleton, you are a veridical man.
A simpleton shall wipe the dews of death, and close my eyes: and when I cross the river of death, let me be met by a band of the heavenly host, who were all simpletons here on earth, and too good for such a hole, so now they are in heaven, and their garments always white--because there are no laundresses there.
Before the baggageman could open his mouth with another of his simpleton remarks, I answered.
I grinned and replied that being abovedecks watching over one simpleton was far better than being trapped belowdecks with a troop of them.
Hammond was appalled by the intelligence, and managed to imply without actually saying anything openly offensive that he thought Laurence had been a simpleton to take De Guignes at face value.
Still, he was loath to agree with this nonscientist public-relations simpleton.
We do not fight cowards, we do not fight mythical Scandian berserkers, we not fight simpletons.
Well, Adela could not be such a simpleton as to be driven entirely counter to her inclinations in an affair of so much importance.
She repeated this with slow elocution, as though her callers were children or simpletons.
You monks twist Nature up with holy words, and try to disguise what the eeriest simpleton can see.
If grownups wished to regard me as a bed-wetter, that I could accept with an inner shrug of the shoulders, but that I should have to behave like a simpleton year in year out was a source of chagrin to Oskar and to his teacher as well.
I pity those simpletons who blame fortune and not themselves for their misfortunes.
I should make an exception in favour of a set of forty ignorant, lazy, vicious, idle, hypocritical scoundrels who live bad lives under the cloak of humility, and eat up the houses of the poor simpletons who provide for them, when they ought to be earning their own bread?
I remembered the country as quiet and queer, and the people in it either simpletons or gipsies.