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Quanti modi ci sono in inglese per chiamare una persona idiota? Molti, davvero… per iniziare eccone 21!  🙂

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This English lesson gives you 21 ways to call someone stupid in English. These are commonly used expressions.

Blockhead – zuccone, testa di legno

A block is a solid piece of wood often used as a base for chopping things. A man with a similarly dense head would thus be known as a blockhead.

-What a blockhead! – Ma che zuccone!

Bonkers – matto, fuori di testa

Bonkers means not right in the head.

-With all the medical evidence against it, anyone who smokes must be completely bonkers! – Con tutte le prove mediche contro, chi fuma deve essere proprio fuori di testa.

Clod – stupido, fesso

A clod is a dense and heavy lump of earth. A stupid person might be considered to have a similar dense lump instead of a brain.

-The man’s a clod! – Quell’uomo è proprio un fesso!

Clot – idiota, cretino

A clot is a variation on the word clod. Blood will form a blood clot. Anyone who has a brain similar to a blood clot is going to be stupid.

-You clot! – Sei un cretino!

Crackers – pazzo, fuori di testa

-You just know by looking at what some people do that they are completely crackers. – Lo capisci già guardando cosa fanno alcune persone che sono completamente pazze.

-I love white water but most people think I’m crackers. – Amo il rafting, ma la maggior parte delle persone pensano che io sia pazzo.

Cretin – cretino, stupido

Whenever you cross the road, know that behind the steering wheel of every car there lurks a cretin whose sole purpose in life is to end yours.

-Only a complete cretin drives a car while drunk. – Solo un cretino totale guida la macchina quando è ubriaco!

Daft – sciocco

A person who is daft is thought to be wanting in intellect.

-You must be daft standing on the edge of that cliff. – Devi essere sciocco a stare sul bordo di quel precipizio.

Dolt – stolto, stupido, idiota

Dolt derives from the word dull, which means not bright. A dolt is thus a dull or stupid person.

-He fell for it? He actually believed me? What a dolt! – Ci è cascato? Davvero mi ha creduto? Che idiota!

Duffer – imbranato, incapace

A duffer is a person who lacks ability or efficiency in business or occupation. It also refers generally to stupid or foolish people.

-I’ve just lost millions because I’m a complete and utter duffer! – Ho appena perso milioni perché sono un completo imbranato totale!

Dullard – tonto, babbeo

Derived from the word dull, which means not bright, a dullard is a dull or stupid person.

-What kind of dullard forgets to book the return flights? – Che tipo di babbeo si dimentica di prenotare il volo di ritorno?

Dunce – cretino, somaro, asino

This word derives from the name of John Duns Scotus, a theologian of the 12th century. When his ideas were rejected in the 16th century, his supporters refused to accept the “new learning”. They became known as Dun’s men, or Dunses.

So the word dunce which means a person too stupid to learn anything new.

-Come on, John, you’re not a dunce! – Dai John, non sei un asino!

Imbecile – imbecille

A person judged to be mentally weak or feeble minded, basically stupid, can be called an imbecile.

-Come on Susan, you’re better off without that imbecile! – Dai Susan, stai molto meglio senza quell’imbecille!

Moron – deficiente

The word moron was used in the early 20th century to describe an adult with a mental age between eight and twelve. Taken from the Greek word meaning stupid, it is now used to describe stupid people.

-How could you throw out my handbags, you moron? – Come hai potuto buttare la mia borsetta, deficiente!?

Nincompoop – sempliciotto, sciocco

This fun word dates back at least to the 17th century and means a fool, blockhead or simpleton.

-What kind of nincompoop wrote this report? – Ma che tipo di sempliciotto ha scritto questo report?

Ninny – sciocco, stupido

Another word with a long history, since the 16th century, ninny has meant a simpleton or fool.

-Don’t be such a ninny. Just do it again. – Non essere così sciocco! Rifallo e basta!

Nitwit – cretino, zuccone

A nitwit is a stupid person, or a person of little intellect.

-Watch that glass! Oh, you nitwit! – Attento al vetro! Oh, sei un cretino!

Numskull – testa vuota, zuccone

Numb means without sensation and skull is the bone surrounding your brain. It’s easy to see where this word originated. As the word numb has a silent letter b, so the word numskull lost the b in spelling.

-I’m telling you, numskull, you’re digging up the wrong street. – Ti sto dicendo, zuccone, stai prendendo la strada sbagliata!

Pudding-head – testa dura

A pudding is a thick and dense mixture of ingredients. Thick and dense are adjectives used to denote stupidity and you can see that a head filled with pudding would be somewhat intellectually challenged.

-Listen, you pudding-head, I told you to sell not buy! – Ascolta testa dura, ti ho detto di vendere, non di comprare!

Simpleton – sempliciotto, fesso, babbeo

Simple means not very complicated, and a simple person is one incapable of understanding complex things. Thus simpleton means a stupid person.

-I’m not the simpleton, you are. When I said meet me at eight, I meant in the evening not the morning. – Non sono il fesso che sei tu. Quando dico di incontrarci alle otto, intendo sella sera, non del mattino!

Thickie – tonto, ottuso

The adjective thick is used to mean stupid. A thickie is therefore a stupid person.

-Listen, you thickie! If you don’t sort this out, you’re fired. – Ascolta tonto! Se non risolvi il problema sei licenziato!

Twit – idiota, cretino

Birds twitter incessantly, but their song makes no sense to our ears. Thus a stupid person who talks nonsensically but constantly is deemed to be a twit.

-Many twits have twittered on Twitter twitterings which even twits wouldn’t fain to tweet. – Molti idioti hanno twittato su Twitter, twittando cose che nemmeno gli idioti avrebbero piacere di twittare.

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wood – legno
to chop – tagliare a pezzi
dense – denso
evidence – prova, dimostrazione
lump – grumo
blood clot – coagulo
sole – unico
purpose – intenzione
to be wanting – essere mancante in
ability – capacità
efficiency – efficienza
to reject – rifiutare
supporter – sostenitore
mentally weak – mentalmente debole
feeble minded – debole di mente
numb – insensibile
skull – teschio
ingredient – ingrediente
to denote – denotare
intellectually challenged – sciocco
to be incapable of – essere incapace di
to twitter – twittare
incessantly – incessantemente
nonsensically – insensatamente
to deem – ritenere, considerare
to fain – essere disposto