idiot(n = noun.person) changeling, cretin, half-wit, imbecile, moron, retard - a person of subnormal intelligence;
is a kind of simple, simpleton
has particulars: mongoloid
Derived form adjective idiotic3
1. 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]
2. 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]
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]
"Life . . . is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing." [1913 Webster]
4. A fool; a simpleton; -- a term of reproach. [1913 Webster]
"Weenest thou make an idiot of our dame?" [1913 Webster]
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
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.
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.
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.
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.