Idiot

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Idiot \Id"i*ot\ ([i^]d"[i^]*[o^]t), n. [F. idiot, L. idiota an
     uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed person, Gr. 'idiw`ths,
     also and orig., a private person, not holding public office,
     fr. 'i`dios proper, peculiar. See {Idiom}.]
     1. A man in private station, as distinguished from one
        holding a public office. [Obs.]


        [1913 Webster]
  
              St. Austin affirmed that the plain places of
              Scripture are sufficient to all laics, and all
              idiots or private persons.            --Jer. Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. An unlearned, ignorant, or simple person, as distinguished
        from the educated; an ignoramus. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Christ was received of idiots, of the vulgar people,
              and of the simpler sort, while he was rejected,
              despised, and persecuted even to death by the high
              priests, lawyers, scribes, doctors, and rabbis. --C.
                                                    Blount.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A human being destitute of the ordinary intellectual
        powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental;
        commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a
        natural fool. In a former classification of mentally
        retarded people, idiot designated a person whose adult
        level of intelligence was equivalent to that of a
        three-year old or younger; this corresponded with an I.Q.
        level of approximately 25 or less.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
              Life . . . is a tale
              Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
              Signifying nothing.                   --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. A fool; a simpleton; -- a term of reproach.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Weenest thou make an idiot of our dame? --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  idiot
       n : a person of subnormal intelligence [syn: {imbecile}, {cretin},
            {moron}, {changeling}, {half-wit}, {retard}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  100 Moby Thesaurus words for "idiot":
     alcoholic, aliene, alternating personality, ament,
     antisocial personality, ass, bedlamite, borderline case, born fool,
     clot, congenital idiot, crackbrain, crackpot, cretin, defective,
     dement, demoniac, disordered personality, disturbed personality,
     donkey, double personality, drug user, dual personality, dullard,
     dullhead, dumbbell, dummkopf, dummy,
     emotionally unstable personality, energumen, escapist, fanatic,
     flake, fou, golem, half-wit, hostile personality, hypochondriac,
     hypochondriast, ignoramus, imaginary invalid, imbecile,
     immature personality, inadequate personality, inferior personality,
     jackass, jerk, jester, juggins, kook, loon, loony, lunatic, madman,
     malade imaginaire, maladjusted personality, maniac,
     mentally defective personality, meshuggenah, mongoloid idiot,
     moral insanity, moron, motley, multiple personality, natural,
     natural idiot, natural-born fool, neuropath, neurotic,
     neurotic personality, nincompoop, ninny, noncompos, nut,
     paranoid personality, perverse personality, phrenetic,
     psychoneurotic, psychopath, psychopathic personality, psychotic,
     psychotic personality, raving lunatic, schizoid,
     schizoid personality, screwball, seclusive personality,
     sexual psychopath, shut-in personality, simp, simpleton, sociopath,
     split personality, stupid, tomfool, valetudinarian, valetudinary,
     weak personality, weirdo, zany
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  IDIOT, Persons. A person who has been without understanding from his 
  nativity, and whom the law, therefore, presumes never likely to attain any. 
  Shelf. on Lun. 2. 
       2. It is an imbecility or sterility of mind, and not a perversion of 
  the understanding. Chit. Med. Jur. 345, 327, note s; 1 Russ. on Cr. 6; Bac. 
  Ab. h.t. A; Bro. Ab. h.t.; Co. Litt. 246, 247; 3 Mod. 44; 1 Vern. 16; 4 
  Rep. 126; 1 Bl. Com. 302. When a man cannot count or number twenty, nor tell 
  his father's or mother's name, nor how old he is, having been frequently 
  told of it, it is a fair presumption that, he is devoid of understanding. F. 
  N. B. 233. Vide 1 Dow, P. C. now series, 392; S. C. 3 Bligh, R. new series, 
  1. Persons born deaf, dumb, and blind, are, presumed to be idiots, for the 
  senses being the only inlets of knowledge, and these, the most important of 
  them, being closed, all ideas and associations belonging to them are totally 
  excluded from their minds. Co. Litt. 42 Shelf. on Lun. 3. But this is a mere 
  presumption, which, like most others, may be rebutted; and doubtless a 
  person born deaf, dumb, and blind, who could be taught to read and write, 
  would not be considered an idiot. A remarkable instance of such an one may 
  be found in the person of Laura Bridgman, who has been taught how to 
  converse and even to write. This young woman was, in the year 1848, at 
  school at South Boston. Vide Locke on Human Understanding, B. 2 c. 11, Sec. 
  12, 13; Ayliffe's Pand. 234; 4 Com. Dig. 610; 8 Com. Dig. 644. 
       3. Idiots are incapable of committing crimes, or entering into 
  contracts. They cannot of course make a will; but they may acquire property 
  by descent. 
       Vide, generally, 1 Dow's Parl. Cas. new series, 392; 3 Bligh's R. 1; 19 
  Ves. 286, 352, 353; Stock on the Law of Non Compotes Mentis; Bouv. Inst. 
  Index, h.t. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  IDIOT, n.  A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in
  human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.  The Idiot's
  activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action,
  but "pervades and regulates the whole."  He has the last word in
  everything; his decision is unappealable.  He sets the fashions and
  opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes
  conduct with a dead-line.