tonto

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Borrowed 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, page 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, due to the translation from Spanish to stupid or slow witted. However the word is also found in the Apache language and here translates into “wild one”

tonto (uncountable)

1. a traditional Ugandan fermented beverage made from bananas

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

• Toton

tonto

1. neuter of tontu

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈtonto/ [ˈt̪on̪.t̪ʊ]
• Rhymes: -onto
• Hyphenation: ton‧to

tonto (feminine 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

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “tonto”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “tonto”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “tonto”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

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

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

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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

Uncertain. 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 hypothesis is that it derives from *tontum, a 'vulgar' past participle for Latin tondeo (“to shear”). Compare Italian tonto, Portuguese tonto, and Romanian tont, tânt, Sicilian ntontu.

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

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

1. stupid

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

   ¿Estás tonto?

   Are you stupid?

2. silly, foolish

   Synonym: bobo

• → Cebuano: tonto
• → Tagalog: tonto
• → Tetelcingo Nahuatl: tunto

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 [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Borrowed from Spanish tonto.

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

tonto (feminine tonta, Baybayin spelling ᜆᜓᜈ᜔ᜆᜓ)

1. (informal, vulgar, offensive) stupid; foolish; silly

   Synonyms: bobo, tanga, tunggak, gunggong, estupido

tonto (feminine tonta, Baybayin spelling ᜆᜓᜈ᜔ᜆᜓ)

1. (informal, vulgar, offensive) fool; idiot; simpleton; dunce

   Synonyms: bobo, tanga, inutil, gunggong, estupido

• “tonto”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018