idiot

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: id=i=ot

CIDE DICTIONARY

idiot, 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.].

•  A man in private station, as distinguished from one holding a public office.  [1913 Webster]

  "St. Austin affirmed that the plain places of Scripture are sufficient to all laics, and all idiots or private persons."  [1913 Webster]
•  An unlearned, ignorant, or simple person, as distinguished from the educated; an ignoramus.  [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."  [1913 Webster]
•  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]

  "Life . . . is a tale
  Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
  Signifying nothing."  [1913 Webster]
•  A fool; a simpleton; -- a term of reproach.  [1913 Webster]

  "Weenest thou make an idiot of our dame?"  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

idiot, n.
1 colloq. a stupid person; an utter fool.
2 a person deficient in mind and permanently incapable of rational conduct.

Idiom

idiot board (or card) colloq. a board displaying a television script to a speaker as an aid to memory.

Derivative

idiotic adj. idiotically adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L idiota ignorant person f. Gk idiotes private person, layman, ignorant person f. idios own, private

DEVIL DICTIONARY

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.

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

idiot

Absence or want of Intellect

N absence of Intellect, want of intellect, imbecility brutality, brute force, instinct, brute instinct, stimulus-response loop, conditioned response, instinctive reaction, Pavlovian response, mimicry, aping (imitation), moron, imbecile, idiot, fool, dumb animal, vegetable, brain dead, Adj, unendowed with reason, void of reason, thoughtless, vegetative, moronic, idiotic, brainless, Adv, instinctively, like Pavlov's dog, vegetatively, unendowed with reason, void of reason, thoughtless, vegetative, moronic, idiotic, brainless, instinctively, like Pavlov's dog, vegetatively, V, mimic, ape (imitate), respond instinctively.

Ignoramus

N ignoramus, dunce, wooden spoon, no scholar, (imbecility) 499 (folly) 501 moron, imbecile, idiot, fool, jerk, nincompoop, asshole, dilettante, sciolist, smatterer, dabbler, half scholar, charlatan, wiseacre, greenhorn, amateur, novice, tyro, numskull, lubber, fool, pedant, bookless, shallow, ignorant, a wit with dunces and a dunce with wits.

Fool

N fool, idiot, tomfool, wiseacre, simpleton, witling, dizzard, donkey, ass, ninny, ninnyhammer, chowderhead, chucklehead, dolt, booby, Tom Noddy, looby, hoddy-doddy, noddy, nonny, noodle, nizy, owl, goose, goosecap, imbecile, gaby, radoteur, nincompoop, badaud, zany, trifler, babbler, pretty fellow, natural, niais, child, baby, infant, innocent, milksop, sop, oaf, lout, loon, lown, dullard, doodle, calf, colt, buzzard, block, put, stick, stock, numps, tony, bull head, dunderhead, addlehead, blockhead, dullhead, loggerhead, jolthead, jolterhead, beetlehead, beetlebrain, grosshead, muttonhead, noodlehead, giddyhead, numbskull, thickskull, lackbrain, shallowbrain, dimwit, halfwit, lackwit, dunderpate, lunkhead sawney, gowk, clod, clod-hopper, clod-poll, clot-poll, clot-pate, bull calf, gawk, Gothamite, lummox, rube, men of Boeotia, wise men of Gotham, un sot a triple etage, sot, jobbernowl, changeling, mooncalf, gobemouche, dotard, driveler, old fogey, old woman, crock, crone, grandmother, cotquean, henhussy, incompetent (insanity), greenhorn, dunce, lubber, madman, one who will not set the Thames on fire, one who did not invent gunpowder, qui n'a pas invente' la poudre, no conjuror, fortuna favet fatuis, les fous font les festinas et les sages les mangen, nomina stultorum parietibus harrent, stultorum plena sunt omnia.

Madman

N madman, lunatic, maniac, bedlamite, candidate for Bedlam, raver, madcap, crazy, energumen, automaniac, monomaniac, dipsomaniac, kleptomaniac, hypochondriac (low spirits), crank, Tom o'Bedlam, dreamer, rhapsodist, seer, highflier, enthusiast, fanatic, fanatico, exalte, knight errant, Don Quixote, idiot.