ignoramus
/ˌɪɡ.nəˈɹeɪ.məs/ noun, verb
Forms ignoramuses ignorami ignoramusing ignoramused ignoramous
- noun A totally ignorant person—unknowledgeable, uneducated, or uninformed; a fool.
- noun (law, dated) A grand jury's ruling on an indictment when the evidence is determined to be insufficient to send the case to trial.
- verb (law, transitive) To make such a ruling against (an indictment).
Synonyms
dunce jay know-nothing lack-latin mumpsimus nescient numskull rube wild-ass know nothing uneducated person
Antonyms
Etymology
After the ignorant lawyer Ignoramus, the titular character in the 1615 play Ignoramus by the English playwright George Ruggle; from Latin ignōrāmus (“we do not know, we are unacquainted with, we are ignorant of”), the first-person plural present active indicative of ignōrō (“to not know, to be unacquainted with, to be ignorant of”).
Directly from Latin ignōrāmus (“we do not know”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun We are ignorant; we ignore; --being the word formerly written on a bill of indictment by a grand jury when there was not sufficient evidence to warrant them in finding it a true bill. The phrase now used is, "No bill," "No true bill," or "Not found," though in some jurisdictions "Ignored" is still used. Wharton (Law Dict. ). Burn.
- noun A stupid, ignorant person; a vain pretender to knowledge; a dunce.
Etymology [L., we are ignorant. See Ignore.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ignoramus”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details