Thought Overflow

So I went looking for the dictionary meaning of the word numbskull. Guess what? It doesn’t exist. Apparently, it’s a variant of the word numskull which means a dull-witted or stupid person; dolt.… DAMN!

This post was supposed to be about the word “numb-skull”. I was going to contemplate on how the word could possibly have been devised. The two obvious parts are of course numb and skull. Taking skull to mean head, one would assume that the skull has become numb because of being hit repeatedly with the same data, and still not registering it. Alternately, a numb skull could also imply a skull that’s numb and devoid of feeling or thought, thus making it… numb!. But since the damn word is numskull and not numbskull, I’ll just leave you with the supposedly official origin of the name:

1717, from num (see numb) + skull. Numskulled (adj.) is attested from 1706.

Hey, what do you know! I was right all along!
Anyway, I leave you now to ponder over why I would make an entire post about a word… specifically, the word “numbskull”. There are a multitude of possibilities, of course, ranging from an unpleasant encounter with an idiot to a heated debate with an imbecile. Think about it.

Also, I must confess that the thought that seems to be making my head numb is the thought of impending doom - examination results are going to be announced shortly … skull numb with fear.

To those of you thinking really hard over what prompted me to make an entry about “numbskull”, the answer is really much simpler than unpleasant encounters and antagonizing debates… I’m simply a random guy!

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