Dunces

As found is this quote :


Jonathan Swift :
"When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."



I wondered what "Dunces" meant :


Etymology: Eponymous, from John Duns Scotus, who was ironically a well-known Scottish thinker. His followers, however, opposed the philosophers of the Renaissance, and thus "dunce" was first used to describe someone rejecting new knowledge in 1530; later, any stupid person.[1]

Noun dunce (plural dunces)
Definition : One backward in book learning; a child or other person dull or weak in intellect; a dullard; a dolt.