subs. (old: now literary).—A stupid and unlettered person, male or female: first applied to ignorant lawyers. [From Latin = we ignore (it), the endorsement by which a grand jury threw out a bill].
1569. ERASMUS, tr. In Praise of Folly [Reeves & Turner], p. 64. The lawyer who is so silly … as to be IGNORAMUS to a proverb.
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. 2. Sec. 2, Mem. 4, Vol. i., p. 425 (1827). Let them go as they are in the catalogue of IGNORAMUS.
1670. SHADWELL, The Sullen Lovers, iv., p. 58. The greatest Owl … Rascal, Oaf, IGNORAMUS.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
b. 1733. R. NORTH, Examen, I., ii. 82. If he had declared otherwise he would have been an IGNORAMUS.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1883. M. E. BRADDON, The Golden Calf, II, ch. iv. p. 140. Brian is a tremendous botanist, and Mr. Jardine is not an IGNORAMUS in that line.
