Idiot

The word idiot is derived from the Greekword ιδιωτης, idiôtês, "a private citizen, individual", from ιδιος, idios, "private".

The derived term idiocy describes an extreme folly or stupidity, its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed) or in psychology the state or condition of an idiot, i.e. profound mental retardation.

Handicap

In 19thand early 20th centurymedicineand psychology, an idiot was a person with a very severe mental retardationor a very low IQlevel. Idiots were defined as people whose IQ were below 20 (with a standard deviation of 16). In the current classification, these people are now said to have profound mental retardation, but the word is no longer used as a scientific term.

Use as an abuse

In modern Englishand other languages, idiot is also a derogatory term used to insult. Its use usually means "You are stupid." It's socially okay, for example, to refer to a group of drunken folks 'acting up' in a bar as "idiots".

Paradoxically, however, 'idiot' cannot easily be used to describe someone who is genuinely mentally retarded. In the 21st Centurysuch use would be seen as insensitive, hurtful, or politically incorrect.

A select number of authors have used "idiot" characters in novels, plays and poetry. Often these characters are used to highlight or indicate something else, that is, often these characters are an allegorical technique. Examplars of such usage are William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and William Wordsworth's The Idiot Boy. Idiot characters in literature are often confused with or subsumed within mad or lunatic characters. The most common imbrication between these two categories of mental impairment occurs in the polemic surrounding Edmund from Shakespeare's King Lear. In Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot, the idiocy of the main character, Prince Myshkin, is attributed more to his honesty, trustfulness, kindness, and humility, than to his mental disability.

Other uses

• The Idiotis a classic in world literature, in Russian, by Dostoyevsky; an online-edition (translated in English) is [[1]]
• In June of 2005, New York State Assemblyman Will Stephenssent an e-mail to his constituents referring to them as 'pontificating idiots'.
• "Idiot box" is a slang term for television, or for a dialog boxon a computer.
• "Walk Idiot Walk" is a song performed by the rock music group The Hivesand released on the band's 2004album, Tyrannosaurus Hives.
• "Idiot savant" was the original term for savant syndrome, used to describe people who excel in one particular thing while being below-average in other mental or behavioral areas. Many of these people are also autistic savants.
• In 2004, Red SoxoutfielderJohnny Damonaffectionately referred to his team as "The Idiots" to describe its eclectic roster and devil-may-care attitude toward "the curse".
• "Idiot lights" was a pejorative term used in the 1960's and 1970's referring to the low oil pressure and alternator fault lights on an automobile dashboard. The implication of the term was that knowledgeable drivers use real gauges and don't need warning lamps. The present and almost universal use of warning lamps in automobiles has caused the term to fall into disuse.
• The Idiot's Guide to Everything was released in 2003 as a methodological approach to describing literally everything imaginable. It was not a huge success.

Quotes

• "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." (Mark Twain, c.1882) [2]

External links and references

• Dictionary.Reference.Com"Middle English, ignorant person, from Old French idiote (modern French idiot), from Latin idiota, from Greek idiotès, private person, layman, from idios, own, private."

• Etymonline"c.1300, "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning," from O.Fr. idiote "uneducated or ignorant person," from L. idiota "ordinary person, layman," in L.L. "uneducated or ignorant person," from Gk. idiotes "layman, person lacking professional skill," lit. "private person," used patronizingly for "ignorant person," from idios "one's own."de:Idiot

eo:Idioto fi:Idiootti (loukkaus) nl:Idioot sr:????? sv:Idiot

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot Wikipedia article Idiot.