Q: Why are hand weights called “dumbbells”? — J. H., West Hartford, Connecticut
A: It’s hard to imagine these clunky pieces of iron having anything to do with a church, but that’s where this term began.
The earliest meaning of “dumb,” a word that appeared in English around A.D. 1000, was “incapable of speech, mute.” This gave us “dumb show” (a pantomime), “dumbstruck” (made silent by astonishment), “dumbfound” (a blend of “dumb” and “confound”) and “dumbwaiter” (a device to deliver food that, unlike chatty human waiters, is mercifully silent).
But whence “dumbbell”?
In medieval Europe, learning to ring church bells required extensive training. But no one wanted to listen to some clumsy novice trying to master this skill (“DONG-ding-ding-oops!-DONG-ding-DONG”).
So, novice bell ringers built up their strength and timing on a practice apparatus that had ropes attached to non-ringing metal weights. Because these weights made no sound, they were called “dumbbells.”
During the short-lived “fitness craze” of the late 1700s, people started using smaller versions of these weights (“dumbbells”) for exercise. “Pump your dumbbells, Henry, or you won’t be able to toss those chests of tea into Boston Harbor!”
A short time later, someone connected two weights with a long steel bar to create a “barbell,” instantly tripling the number of abdominal hernias among men trying to impress their girlfriends.
During the 1800s, German immigrants to the U.S. brought with them their word “dumm,” meaning “stupid,” as in “dummkopf,” literally “dumb head.” (Why am I thinking of Col. Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes”?)
The German “dumm” sounded exactly like the English “dumb,” so Americans started using “dumb” to mean “stupid.” You might say the word “dumb” was “dumbed down.”
The use of “dumbbell” to describe a slow-witted person might have arisen as a comparison to metal dumbbells. Or it might be a combination of “dumb,” meaning “stupid,” and “bell,” an old term for the head. We still use this meaning when we say that a football player dazed by a blow to the noggin has “had his bell rung.”
During the late 1800s, “dumbbell” also became an architectural term. Immigrants pouring into American cities were often crammed into “dumbbell tenements” — apartment buildings shaped like dumbbells, with small, windowless rooms on each end and a narrow hallway in the middle.
I wonder whether King Kong, while rampaging through Manhattan, exercised by hoisting dumbbell tenements. Now THAT’s heavy lifting!
Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His new book, “Mark My Words,” is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to [email protected] or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.
