Bonehead

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbəʊnˌhɛd/

Definitions

1. A person who shows poor judgment or lacks intelligence
2. Someone characterized by a lack of common sense or understanding
3. An individual regarded as senseless or mentally dull

Etymology: "Bonehead" is a plain compound: "bone" plus "head," with the first element doing the work of an adjective-like intensifier. The "bone" in question is the dense skeletal material, and the old sense of "bone" as the seat of hardness and solidity is what gives the word its bite. A bonehead is someone whose skull seems to hold nothing but bone, with no room for thought. The combination is English-built, so there is no foreign source to trace. It is a transparent coinage from two everyday words, which is why it reads so immediately. Its meaning, a person lacking common sense or understanding, follows directly from the image of a head that is all bone and no brain.

Synonyms: fool, idiot, dunce, blockhead, nincompoop

Antonyms: genius, intellect, smart person, whiz, sage