Dumb / Dumb as an ox / dumb ox

Dumb is US colloquial for foolish or stupid, and dates from 1823. Dumb as an ox is a simile for a stupid person that dates from the late 17th/early 18th century, but oxen are in fact far from stupid animals. Farmers say they are as intelligent as dogs. A dumb ox is a large, slow, stupid man, and dates in this sense from the mid-1700s. There is evidence that the concept of 'dumb ox' is even older, because it was the nickname given to St Thomas Aquinas by his mentor, St Albert the Great, during the 13th century. Apparently, Aquinas was a large, slow, person, but as one of the greatest minds of all time, was light years from stupid. His nickname would have been in 13th-century Italian, but it prompted G.K. Chesterton to write a biography of Aquinas in 1933 entitled St. Thomas Aquinas, The Dumb Ox.