Absent-minded professor

Absent-minded professor

The absent-minded professor is a stock character of popular fiction usually portrayed as an academic with important information, but whose focus on their learning leads him to ignore or forget his surroundings.

The stereotype is very old; a story associated with the philosopher Thales says that he walked at night with his eyes focused on the heavens, and as a result, fell down a well. [Diogenes Laërtius, "Lives of the Eminent Philosophers", "Thales"]

Examples

Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, and Albert Einstein were all considered absent-minded. André-Marie Ampère used a cloth chalkboard eraser as a handkerchief. In the streets of Paris, he mistook the side of a horse-drawn delivery van for a blackboard, began some calculation on it, walked, and then ran along beside it to continue his work when it drove off. Between the afternoon and the evening of one day he forgot a dinner invitation personally delivered by the Emperor Napoleon. Geneticist Sewall Wright, known for his copious use of chalkboards, is said to have once accidentally used a guinea pig as an eraser.

Another usage of the phrase "absent-minded professor" is common in the English language. Like the phrase itself implies, it is used to describe people who are so engrossed in their 'own world' that they fail to keep track of their surroundings. It is a common stereotype that professors get so obsessed with their research that they pay little attention to anything else.

In fiction

An example of an absent-minded professor is Professor Calculus from "The Adventures of Tintin", or "Doc" Emmett Brown from "Back to the Future". or, of course, from the film titled The Absent-Minded Professor and its less successful film remakes all based on the short story "A Situation of Gravity", by Samuel W. Taylor.

The "absent-minded professor" archetype is often mixed with that of the "mad scientist", often to comic effect as in the Jerry Lewis film "The Nutty Professor". However, the mad scientist archetype often has malevolent connotations, the absent minded professor is typically characterized as being benevolent.

The archetype is generally associated with, but not restricted to college professors usually in the field of sciences or engineering; in the fantasy genre, he may appear as a wizard, an example of which is Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series.

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • absent-minded professor — noun a) A stereotypical fictional character whose focus on academic matters leads them to ignore or forget their surroundings. An absent minded professor, in going out of the gateway of his college, ran against a cow. In the confusion of the… …   Wiktionary

  • The Absent-Minded Professor — For the stock character, see absent minded professor. Infobox Film name = The Absent Minded Professor director = Robert Stevenson producer = Bill Walsh writer = Samuel W. Taylor Bill Walsh starring = Fred MacMurray Nancy Olson music = George… …   Wikipedia

  • The Absent-Minded Professor — Filmdaten Deutscher Titel: Der fliegende Pauker Originaltitel: The Absent Minded Professor Produktionsland: USA Erscheinungsjahr: 1960 Länge: 95 Minuten Originalsprache …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • absent-minded — or absentminded [ab′sənt mīn′did, ab′səntmīn΄did] adj. 1. so dreamy or lost in thought as not to pay attention to what one is doing or what is going on around one 2. habitually forgetful absent mindedly adv. absent mindedness n. SYN. ABSENT… …   English World dictionary

  • absent-minded — adj. habitually forgetful or inattentive; with one s mind on other things. Derivatives: absent mindedly adv. absent mindedness n. * * * absent mindedly, adv. absent mindedness, n. /ab seuhnt muyn did/, adj. so lost in thought that one does not… …   Useful english dictionary

  • absent-minded — I (Roget s IV) modif. Syn. abstracted, preoccupied, lost in thought, forgetful, distracted, dreamy, inattentive, lost, unmindful, absent, unheeding, heedless, oblivious, distrait, daydreaming, napping, unconscious, unaware, inadvertent, withdrawn …   English dictionary for students

  • absent-minded — adj. Absent minded is used with these nouns: ↑professor …   Collocations dictionary

  • The Absent-Minded Professor —    Voir Monte là d ssus …   Dictionnaire mondial des Films

  • Professor Calculus — (Professeur Tournesol) Publication information Publisher Casterman (Belgium) …   Wikipedia

  • Absent-mindedness — can refer to three very different things: # a low level of attention ( blanking or “zoning out”); # intense attention to a single object of focus (hyperfocus) that makes us oblivious to events around us; or # unwarranted distraction of attention… …   Wikipedia

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