Stupid

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Stupidity.jpg

Origin

Middle French stupide, Latin stupidus , stupēre to be stunned or benumbed. In Roman culture, 'the stupidus of the mimes' was a sort of 'professional buffoon - the "fall-man", the eternal he-who-gets-kicked'.

Since entering the English language, Since then, stupidity has taken place along with "fool," "idiot," "dumb," "moron," and related concepts as a pejorative appellation for human misdeeds, whether purposeful or accidental, due to absence of mental capacity.

Definitions

  • 1a : slow of mind : obtuse
b : given to unintelligent decisions or acts : acting in an unintelligent or careless manner
c : lacking intelligence or reason : brutish
  • 2: dulled in feeling or sensation : torpid <still stupid from the sedative>
  • 3: marked by or resulting from unreasoned thinking or acting : senseless <a stupid decision>
  • 4: lacking interest or point <a stupid event>

Description

Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or sense. It may be innate, assumed, or reactive - 'being "stupid with grief" as a defence against trauma', a state marked with 'grief and despair...making even simple daily tasks a hardship'.

Evolutionary psychology maintains that 'creative stupidity and able misfits prove the existence of the human learning instincts...can exist because instincts are highly independent'.[1]