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An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. 'Idiot' was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot guard themself against common physical dangers. The term was gradually replaced by 'profound mental retardation', which has since been replaced by other terms. Along with terms like moron, imbecile, retard and
cretin Cretin may refer to: * An archaic term for a patient with congenital iodine deficiency syndrome (cretinism) * A pejorative term, similar to idiot People * Guillaume Crétin (c. 1460–1525), a French poet * Joseph Crétin (1799–1857), an Americ ...
, its use to describe people with mental disabilities is considered archaic and offensive. Moral idiocy refers to a moral disability.


Etymology

The word "idiot" comes from the Greek noun ''idiōtēs'' 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective ''idios'' 'personal' (not public, not shared).Liddell-Scott-Jones '' A Greek–English Lexicon'', ''s.v.'

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In Latin, ''idiota'' was borrowed in the meaning 'uneducated', 'ignorant', 'common', and in Late Latin came to mean 'crude, illiterate, ignorant'. In
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, it kept the meaning of 'illiterate', 'ignorant', and added the meaning 'stupid' in the 13th century. In English, it added the meaning 'mentally deficient' in the 14th century. Many political commentators, starting as early as 1856, have interpreted the word "idiot" as reflecting the Ancient Athenians' attitudes to civic participation and private life, combining the ancient meaning of 'private citizen' with the modern meaning 'fool' to conclude that the Greeks used the word to say that it is selfish and foolish not to participate in public life. But this is not how the Greeks used the word. It is certainly true that the Greeks valued civic participation and criticized non-participation. Thucydides quotes Pericles' Funeral Oration as saying: " eregard... him who takes no part in these ublicduties not as unambitious but as useless" (). However, neither he nor any other ancient author uses the word "idiot" to describe non-participants, or in a derogatory sense; its most common use was simply a private citizen or amateur as opposed to a government official, professional, or expert. The derogatory sense came centuries later, and was unrelated to the political meaning.'' Oxford English Dictionary''
''s.v.''
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Disability and early classification and nomenclature

In 19th- and early 20th-century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very profound intellectual disability, being diagnosed with "idiocy". In the early 1900s, Dr.
Henry H. Goddard Henry Herbert Goddard (August 14, 1866 – June 18, 1957) was a prominent American psychologist, eugenicist, and segregationist during the early 20th century. He is known especially for his 1912 work '' The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Her ...
proposed a classification system for intellectual disability based on the Binet-Simon concept of
mental age Mental age is a concept related to intelligence. It looks at how a specific individual, at a specific age, performs intellectually, compared to average intellectual performance for that individual's actual chronological age (i.e. time elapsed sin ...
. Individuals with the lowest mental age level (less than three years) were identified as ''idiots''; ''imbeciles'' had a mental age of three to seven years, and ''morons'' had a mental age of seven to ten years. The term "idiot" was used to refer to people having an IQ below 30 IQ, or intelligence quotient, was originally determined by dividing a person's mental age, as determined by standardized tests, by their actual age. The concept of mental age has fallen into disfavor, though, and IQ is now determined on the basis of statistical distributions. In the obsolete medical classification ( ICD-9, 1977), these people were said to have "profound mental retardation" or "profound mental subnormality" with IQ under 20.


Regional law


United States

Until 2007, the
California Penal Code The Penal Code of California forms the basis for the application of most criminal law, criminal procedure, penal institutions, and the execution of sentences, among other things, in the American state of California. It was originally enacted ...
Section 26 stated that "Idiots" were one of six types of people who are not capable of committing crimes. In 2007 the code was amended to read "persons who are mentally incapacitated." In 2008, Iowa voters passed a measure replacing "idiot, or insane person" in the State's constitution with "person adjudged mentally incompetent." In the constitution of several U.S. states, "idiots" do not have the right to vote: * Kentucky Section 145 * Mississippi Article 12, Section 241 * Ohio Article V, Section 6 The constitution of the state of Arkansas was amended in the general election of 2008 to, among other things, repeal a provision (Article 3, Section 5) which had until its repeal prohibited "idiots or insane persons" from voting.


In literature

A few authors have used "idiot" characters in novels, plays and poetry. Often these characters are used to highlight or indicate something else (
allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
). Examples of such usage are William Faulkner's '' The Sound and the Fury'', Daphne du Maurier's ''
Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...
'' and William Wordsworth's ''
The Idiot Boy "The Idiot Boy" is a lyrical poem by William Wordsworth. Poem The poem is of 463 lines and is written in five-line stanzas with a varying rhyme scheme. It was first published in the ''Lyrical Ballads'' of 1798, where it appeared between ''The Mad ...
''. Idiot characters in literature are often confused with or subsumed within mad or lunatic characters. The most common intersection between these two categories of mental impairment occurs in the polemic surrounding
Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...
from William Shakespeare's '' King Lear''. In
Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
's novel '' The Idiot'' the title refers to the central character
Prince Myshkin Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, князь Лев Николаевич Мышкин, knyazʹ Lev Nikoláyevich Mýshkin) is the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1869 novel ''The Idiot''. Dostoevsky wanted ...
, a man whose innocence, kindness and humility, combined with his occasional epileptic symptoms, cause many in the corrupt, egoistic culture around him to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence. In '' The Antichrist'', Nietzsche applies the word 'idiot' to Jesus in a comparable fashion, almost certainly in an allusion to Dostoevsky's use of the word: "One has to regret that no Dostoevsky lived in the neighbourhood of this most interesting ''décadent''; I mean someone who could feel the thrilling fascination of such a combination of the sublime, the sick and the childish."
(§ 29, partially quoted here, contains three words that were suppressed by Nietzsche's sister when she published The Antichrist in 1895. The words are: 'das Wort Idiot,' translated here as 'the word idiot'. They were not made public until 1931, by Josef Hofmiller.
H.L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
's 1920 translation does not contain these words.)


References


Citations


Sources

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External links

* * {{Authority control Obsolete medical terms Obsolete terms for mental disorders Pejorative terms for people with disabilities Intellectual disability