WORD OF THE DAY: IGNORAMUS
noun | ig-nuh-RAY-mus
What It Means
An ignoramus is an utterly ignorant or stupid person.
// I can’t believe they let an ignoramus like that run the company.
Examples of IGNORAMUS
“The alleged purpose of the [fee] increase was to discourage young people from taking courses that didn’t lead to jobs where the demand for workers was great. Predictably, it didn’t work. And only an ignoramus would regard an arts degree as of little value.” — Ross Gittins, The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, 7 Aug. 2024
Did You Know?
Ignoramus is the title of a farce by George Ruggle (1575-1622) that was first produced in 1615. The title character, whose name in Latin literally means “we are ignorant of,” is a lawyer who fancies himself to be quite clever but is actually foolish and ignorant. Ruggle may have been inspired in his choice of the name by a proceeding in the English judicial system: the term ignoramus was written on bills of indictment when the evidence presented seemed insufficient to justify prosecution. In these cases ignoramus indicated “we take no notice of (i.e., we do not recognise) this indictment.” Such a reference would have been most appropriate for Ruggle’s satire of the judiciary.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
