Duns

The Border town that gave Duns Scotus his name, and whose name, through the later abuse of his followers, gave English the word dunce.

Duns is a small town in the Scottish Borders. Its most famous son joined the Franciscans, studied and taught at Oxford, Paris and Cologne, and died at forty-two having built one of the most technically demanding systems in medieval philosophy. His followers defended it stubbornly against the humanists of the next century, who took to calling them Dunsmen and then dunces. The insult outlived the argument.