dumbbell

• dumb-bell, dumbell (rare)

From dumb (“silent”) +‎ bell (“a resonating instrument”). The term "dumbbell" originated in 18th-century England to describe silent exercise apparatus used in practicing the motions of ringing church bells without making any sound. The component "dumb" referred to the device being silent (lacking a clapper), while component "bell" referred to the apparatus mimicking the motion of ringing a church bell. It is unknown whether such exercise was originally for the purpose of training bellringers or was rather in simple imitation of the (then more common) action of bellringing, but for the purpose of improving fitness.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʌm.bɛl/

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dumbbell (plural dumbbells)

1. A weight training implement consisting of a short bar with weight counterpoised on each end.

   He was exercising with the dumbbells in gym class today.

   • 1997, Pete McDonald, Climbing Lessons: Inside Outdoor Education, page 40:

     He also had a room strewn with the toys of the trade and what-have-you: ropes and ironmongery, buoyancy aid and bagpipes, fetid socks and half-eaten haggises, dumbbells and ski-instructor sweaters.

   • 2007, “The Years before the End of the War”, in A Girl From Shanghai: The Story of Lillian Hsu, a Medical Geneticist, a NTU Medical College Alumna‎^[1], →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 35–36:

     On the map Gansu is shaped like a dumbbell lying obliquely from east to west. Its best known city is Lanjhou, the capital, and also the gateway to the Silk Road. But we did not go there; we were heading for a relatively unknown city a few hundred miles away from Lanjhou, called Tianshuei.

2. (obsolete) A bell with no clapper, used as bell-striking practice or to strike as a form of physical exercise
3. (derogatory, slang) A stupid person.
   • 2015, Floyd Merrell, Enigmas: Gold Fever, Space-Time Warps, Sierra Madre Magic:

     That's fool's gold, you dumbbell. Iron pyrite. Nobody would give you a dime for a ton of it.

• → Japanese: ダンベル (danberu)
• → Korean: 덤벨 (deombel)

• barbell
• kettlebell