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Know-nothing

novice_81

Senior Member
German
Is the phrase "know-nothing" used in the English language or is it rather rare?

For example, a teacher might say to a pupil: You better start learning harder you know-nothing! Would it be a correct use of this phrase?
There are a large number of words and phrases that mean "stupid person." You shouldn't have much trouble finding a list.

(In the US, there was a political party called the Know-Nothings in the 1850s so it sounds very old to me. 👁 Smile :)
)
Nouns are very crude in how they label people, and I am sure that teachers are advised not to use them to criticise pupils. In ordinary English, I expect nine people out of ten would not distinguish between "you know-nothing" and "you idiot", and "idiot" must be a hundred times more common, at least.
I thought that "know-nothing" is a person, a student or a pupil, who doesn't like learning and doesn't want to learn and always gets poor grades. I think then this is not the word I'm looking for. Maybe "dunce" would be better, but I think it's old-fashioned.
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Basically we don't call people names to their faces any more, especially teachers.

There are however many insults seen on social media.

We can say someone is ignorant.
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