Stupid
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]
