tonto

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From Spanish tonto (“stupid, foolish; idiot, fool”), of uncertain etymology. Originally in US use but now chiefly British. Cf. earlier Tonto, with which it is sometimes confused.

tonto (plural tontos)

1. (slang) Synonym of idiot: someone who is foolish or stupid.
   • 1973, Robert Ludlum, Trevayne, p. 153:

     Even us tontos figured that one out.

tonto (comparative more tonto, superlative most tonto)

1. (slang, possibly offensive) Synonym of crazy.
   • 1982 Feb. 26, New York Times, A10:

     He told the businessmen that the law that required the certification by the President was ‘tonto’.

   • 1985 Jan. 31, Listener, p. 34:

     His two heroes are both ex-FO types and both terminally tonto about cricket.

   • 2011, Gil McNeil, Stand by Your Man, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     Yes, and then I got drunk one night and snogged one of his friends, and he went tonto.

   • 2014, Ben Elton, Time and Time Again, Random House, →ISBN:

     AMERICA! The richest prize on the bloody planet. Gone, for want of a few paltry seats on the cross benches. George the bloody Third wasn't just mad, he was completely tonto!

   • 2021 Feb. 23, Robert Ben L. Wallace, comment at Horse Guards:

     Whether you're based in Cyprus or you know we do longer tours in Kenya or Oman or are busy just making it to the brigade at the moment up in Estonia, you know it's going to be a busy army and unfortunately we've got a busy adversary now in Putin. Gone full tonto, I think, as I'd say, and you know that's going to be quite... We've got 1,000 people on standby.

   Oi, bruv. He's gone full tonto.

Because of the Native American sense of Tonto popularized by its use as the name of the sidekick of the Lone Ranger, even as a Spanish loanword this term can be understood as a racial slur in English.

tonto (uncountable)

1. a traditional Ugandan fermented beverage made from bananas

• “tonto, n. and adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2019.

• Toton

tonto

1. neuter of tontu

Unknown. Compare Asturian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese tonto, Romanian tont or tânt.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtontʊ]

tonto m (feminine singular tonta, masculine plural tontos, feminine plural tontas)

1. foolish, stupid

   Synonym: parvo

2. silly

   Synonym: parvo

tonto m (plural tontos, feminine tonta, feminine plural tontas)

1. a fool

   Synonym: parvo

• atontecer

• “tonto” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “tonto” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “tonto” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Of unclear origin. Compare Portuguese tonto, Romanian tont or tânt, and Spanish tonto.

• IPA^(key): /ˈton.to/
• Rhymes: -onto
• Hyphenation: tón‧to

tonto (feminine tonta, masculine plural tonti, feminine plural tonte)

1. stupid, silly, dumb, foolish

• intontire

tonto m (plural tonti, feminine tonta)

1. a fool, a stupid person
2. goof

• tonto in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Of unclear origin. Compare Italian tonto, Romanian tont or tânt, and Spanish tonto.

• Hyphenation: ton‧to

tonto (feminine tonta, masculine plural tontos, feminine plural tontas)

1. dizzy
2. stupid

   Synonyms: anormal, bobo, estúpido, idiota, pateta; see also Thesaurus:idiota

3. silly, foolish

   Synonyms: bobo, pateta, tolo

tonto m (plural tontos, feminine tonta, feminine plural tontas)

1. a fool, a stupid person

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idiota

Of unclear origin. Latin attonitus has been proposed, but there are phonological difficulties, namely unexpected loss of initial /a/ and lack of diphthongization; cf. the expected outcome atuendo. Tonto may have an expressive or onomatopoeic origin. Another theory is that it derives from *tontum, a 'vulgar' past participle for Latin tondēre "shear". Compare Italian tonto, Portuguese tonto, and Romanian tont or tânt.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtonto/ [ˈt̪õn̪.t̪o]
• Rhymes: -onto
• Syllabification: ton‧to

tonto (feminine tonta, masculine plural tontos, feminine plural tontas)

1. stupid

   Synonyms: bobo, estúpido, idiota, retrasado, subnormal, tarado

2. silly, foolish

   Synonym: bobo

• → Tetelcingo Nahuatl: tunto
• → Tagalog: tonto

tonto m (plural tontos, feminine tonta, feminine plural tontas)

1. a fool, a stupid person

• Although in some contexts zonzo, bobo, tonto, menso, culero, tarado, idiota, imbécil, estúpido and pendejo may be synonyms, in most contexts they have a different degree of intensity, with zonzo having the mildest connotation, increasing in intensity in that rough order, to estúpido and pendejo, which have the most offensive meaning.

• Badia i Margarit, Antoni M. (ed.) 2006. Homenatge de l'IEC a Joan Coromines, en el centenari de la seva naixença. Barcelona: Institut d'estudis Catalans. Pages 68–70.

• “tonto”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Borrowed from Spanish tonto.

• Hyphenation: ton‧to
• IPA^(key): /ˈtonto/, [ˈton.to]

tonto (feminine tonta)

1. stupid; foolish; silly

   Synonyms: bobo, tanga, tunggak, gunggong, estupido

tonto (feminine tonta)

1. fool; idiot; simpleton; dunce

   Synonyms: bobo, tanga, inutil, gunggong, estupido

• “tonto”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2018