# What's Latin for Stupid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2007, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825 "2007-01-13T09:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/1 "2007-01-13T09:50:32Z")
More specifically, is there a Latin word which expresses a level of stupidity so monumental that it’s epic? ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/2 "2007-01-13T13:23:57Z")
While we wait for the Latin scholars to get here I’d like to offer the following: _Stultus est sicut stultus facit_ which means _stupid is as stupid does_. And now the real reason for this post. While looking around for a phrase meaning epically stupid I came across this gem hiding among an impressive pile of classically looking phrases: _Furnulum pani nolo_ which seems to translate as _I don’t want a toaster_. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/3 "2007-01-13T16:10:44Z")
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara] _Stultus est sicut stultus facit_ which means _stupid is as stupid does_. [/QUOTE] I’d always seen “stultus est ut stultus agit”, but I’m not a Latin scholar. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/4 "2007-01-13T16:28:14Z")
MINGING SUM NE In the UK’s current Celebrity Big Brother, this is the motto on a crest stuck to one of the doors; it refers to one of the contestants, who became a celebrity due to her appearance in a “normal” Big Brother season, and famously asked “Am I minging?” (minging = English slang for ugly, itself derived from a slang word for rotten/stinky.) ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/5 "2007-01-13T16:32:03Z")
> **[Free Online English to Latin to English Dictionary](https://www.freedict.com/onldict/lat.html)** > > Online English to Latin to English Dictionary Results for ‘stupid’ English- Latin stupid- plumbeus, bardus ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/6 "2007-01-13T16:48:14Z")
imbecilis (origin of imbecil) meant “someone lacking the ability to reason; someone too stupid to decide for himself”. Children, the dement and women were considered imbecile. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/7 "2007-01-13T19:44:15Z")
Does" politician " count ?I’m sure the word has latin origins. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/8 "2007-01-13T19:59:33Z")
I’d go with _stupiditas aere perennius_, literally, ‘stupidity more lasting than bronze’ which has the added advantage of being an allusion to a well-known poem of Horace, Ode III.30, in which he refers to his poetry as a ‘monumentum aere perennius’. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/9 "2007-01-13T22:02:09Z")
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara] While we wait for the Latin scholars to get here I’d like to offer the following: _Stultus est sicut stultus facit_ which means _stupid is as stupid does_. [/QUOTE] Ah! Forrest Gump in Latin! How do you say, “And that’s all I have to say about that”? Or: “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/10 "2007-01-14T05:06:17Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] imbecilis (origin of imbecil) meant “someone lacking the ability to reason; someone too stupid to decide for himself”. Children, the dement and women were considered imbecile. [/QUOTE] How about people who forget to inflect their adjectives? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/11 "2007-01-14T06:24:17Z")
Bardus Advoco ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/12 "2007-01-15T01:33:25Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”. [/QUOTE] But obviously, this Forrest Gump quote is just plain wrong! There are patterns on the top of chocolates indicating what kind each one is. I even remember reading an article from Cecil on these patterns about 20 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/13 "2007-01-15T01:34:24Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] More specifically, is there a Latin word which expresses a level of stupidity so monumental that it’s epic? [/QUOTE] Schottenheimer. No, wait. That’s German. ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/14 "2007-01-15T03:16:24Z")
Quale? Qualee? Can’t remember about the last “e” ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/15 "2007-01-15T09:45:32Z")
“Stultus” would take the comparative “stultior” and the superlative “stultissimus”. It’s the root word for the English “stultifying”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-latin-for-stupid/387825/16 "2007-01-15T09:49:13Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut] How about people who forget to inflect their adjectives? [/QUOTE] Sorry?