dumb-bell（n.）
同时， dumbbell，“一对用于锻炼的加重杠铃”，1785年开始使用，根据 OED 的说法，早在1711年，它是指类似于敲钟的装置，但没有钟（因此称为 dumb）； 它既用于体育锻炼，有时也用于练习敲钟。参见 dumb（形容词）+ bell（名词）。如果这是正确的，那么这个词一定是被转义过来的； 18世纪早期的参考资料提到了“拉”或“敲”哑铃，并指出这只能在室内进行。以下是约瑟夫·斯特鲁特（Joseph Strutt）1801年著作《英国人民的体育和娱乐活动》（The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England）1903年重印版的脚注：
The origin of the term is somewhat curious. Dumb-bells take their name by analogy, as was pointed out in Notes and Queries in 1861, "from a machine used for exercise, consisting of a rough, heavy, wooden flywheel with a rope passing through and round a spindle ... and set in motion like a church bell." This statement, however, does not sufficiently explain the transference of such a name to the short bar and rounded lead or iron ends of a hand dumb-bell. This difficulty was explained by the late Chancellor Ferguson in a paper read before the Archaeological Institute in 1895, wherein a dumb-bell apparatus, now at Lord Sackville's seat at Knowle, was described and illustrated. The roller round which the rope winds and unwinds has four iron arms, each of which has a leaden poise or ball at the end, just like the end of an ordinary hand dumb-bell. This Knowle example is fixed in an attic and the rope passed through to a gallery beneath. Anyone pulling the rope would get much the same exercise as in pulling a bell rope in a church tower, but without annoying his neighbours by the noise. There used to be a similar apparatus at New College, Oxford.
这个词的起源有些奇特。正如 Notes and Queries 在1861年指出的那样，“它的名字是通过类比而来的，源自一种用于锻炼的机器，由一个粗糙而沉重的木质飞轮、通过绳子穿过和绕过一个轴承...并像教堂的钟一样运动。”然而，这个说法并没有充分解释为什么会把这个名字转移到手持哑铃的短杆和圆形铅或铁头上。这个难题在1895年考古学研究所（Archaeological Institute）的一篇由已故的费尔格森校长在读的论文中得到了解释，文中描述并插图展示了一种哑铃装置，现存于萨克维尔勋爵的诺尔座（Knowle），绳子绕过的滚轮有四个铁臂，每个臂端都有一个铅质或铁质的配重球，就像普通手持哑铃的末端一样。这个诺尔座的例子固定在阁楼上，绳子穿过到下面的一个画廊。拉动绳子的人会得到与在教堂塔楼里拉动钟绳相似的锻炼效果，但不会因噪音而打扰邻居。牛津大学的新学院曾经有一个类似的装置。
1918年，美国英语大学俚语中出现了“笨蛋，愚蠢的人”的比喻意义。
该词起源时间：1785年