idiot (______), n. Forms: 4 ydyote, 4_5 ydiotte, 4_6 -ot(e, yd-, idyot, 5 idyote, -othe, ydeote, 6 ydeot(te, ideot(t)e, idiotte, 4_7 idiote, 4_9 ideot, 4_ idiot.
[a. F. idiot (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It., Sp., Pg. idiota, ad. L. idiota uneducated, ignorant person, ad. Gr. _______ private person, common man, plebeian, one without professional knowledge, _layman'; and so, ignorant, ill-informed person, f. _____ private, own, peculiar.
In the 16th c., instances of the word are found with initial n, transferred from an (a nidiot:---an idiot); nidiot was further popularly corrupted to nidget (q.v.). With the latter cf. the modern vulgar pronunciation, sometimes graphically represented as idget.]
_ 1. a. A person without learning; an ignorant, uneducated man; a simple man; a clown. Obs.
This use is app. partly due to passages in the Vulgate or Greek N.T., esp. Acts iv. 13, 1 Cor. xiv. 16.
1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 170, I__ede forth as an ydiote in contre to aspye After Pieres Ãe plowman.
_1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. i. 288 Ryght as be twelue ydiotes, sent Austyn seyth, hee meneth the apostellis, for thei not lerned were.
1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 287/1 The bisshop repreuyd hym sore as unconnyng and an ydeote.
1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 23 A most common kinde of speech, wherewithall euen the verie idiots were acquainted.
1647 H. More Poems Pref., It would be safer to ask the judgment of young lads or Countrey idiots_then those lubricous wits and overworn Philosophers.
1657 (title) The Deuine Louer, or the Sainctly Ideots Deuotions.
1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 374, I_confess my self an Ideot, understanding no other Language than Turkish.
1722 J. Covel Acc. Grk. Ch. 353 There is also this very remarkable passage in the Cardinal; Idiotæ qui vident Picturas, Ideots who see these Pictures [etc.].
_ b. spec. A layman. Obs.
_1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 46 We dwelten to-gidre in chirchis, & weren idiotis, & vnderloute to ale men.
1611 Panegyr. Verses in Coryat's Crudities, For he would not Take orders but remaine an Idiote.
1638 Featly Strict. Lyndom. i. 158 That hee that supplieth the place of the idiot or laye-man in answering for the people shall understand.
1660 Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. i. ii. rule ii. _5 The holy and innocent ideot, or plain easy people of the Laity.
_ c. One not professionally learned or skilled; also, a private (as opposed to a public) man. Obs.
1638 F. Junius Paint. Ancients 75 If any one should bid an idiot take the instruments and mend what he blameth in the Artificers, he should never be able to doe it.
1651 Jer. Taylor Clerus Dom. 54 In the form of Ideots and private persons.
1663 Boyle Exp. & Nat. Philos. i. 17 Idiots admire in things the Beauty of their Materials, but Artists that of the Workmanship.
2. a. A person so deficient in mental or intellectual faculty as to be incapable of ordinary acts of reasoning or rational conduct. Applied to one permanently so afflicted, as distinguished from one who is temporarily insane, or _out of his wits', and who either has lucid intervals, or may be expected to recover his reason.
By the older legal authorities an idiot is defined as one congenitally deficient in reasoning powers, a _natural fool' (cf. quot. 1590), and this is still the common implication of the term. In quot. 1440 = half-wit.
_1300 Cursor M. 10456 (Cott.) þou sais to me als til a sott, Haldes Ãou me for ani idiot [Gött. a fole]?
_1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 311 Wenestow make an ydyot of oure dame?
_1425 Found. St. Bartholomew's (E.E.T.S.) 13 He made and feyned hym-self vnwyse_and owtward pretendid the cheyr of an ydiotte.
_1440 Promp. Parv. 258/2 Idyote, neither fowle ne ryghte wyce (H. idyote, halfe innocent_), idiota.
1590 Swinburne Testaments ii. 39 An Idiote, or a naturall foole is he, who notwithstanding he bee of lawfull age, yet he is so witlesse, that hee can not number to twentie, nor can tell what age he is of, nor knoweth who is his father, or mother, nor is able to answer to any such easie question.
1648 Milton Tenure Kings (1650) 52 By the civil laws a foole or Idiot born shall lose the lands whereto he is born because he is not able to use them aright.
1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xi. (1695) 77 Idiots make very few or no Propositions, and reason scarce at all.
1793 Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiog. III. lii. 247 Who can explain wherein consists the difference of organization between an ideot and another man?
1845 Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) II. 62 Persons insane (in which class are_to be included idiots who have had no understanding from their birth, as well as lunatics who_have lost the use of their reason).
b. A term of reprobation for one who speaks or acts in what the speaker considers an irrational way, or with extreme stupidity or folly; a blockhead, an utter fool.
_1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Theodera 148 Wenand I ware sic a ydiot, Ãat Ãu suld wit my priuete.
_1568 Coverdale Bk. Death iii. iii. (1579) 258 O thou great ydiote, thou lamentest, that thy name and honour perisheth in this transitorie worlde.
1620 Granger Div. Logike 381 Many obdurate Popish Idiotes say, that all things are so deare_because there is so much preaching.
1713 Addison Ct. Tariff, He called them ideots and blockheads.
1796 Bp. Watson Apol. Bible 283 He would have been an ideot, had he put it in the power of his enemies to prove [etc.].
1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge li, You idiot, do you know what peril you stand in?
[1880 Mrs. Whitney Odd or Even? xv. 136, _I think people are __idgets''!' said Frances.]
_ c. A man of weak intellect maintained to afford amusement to others; a household or court fool; a professional fool or jester. idiot's hood, a fool's cap. Obs.
1526 Will of T. Goldisburgh (Somerset Ho.), To Richard Carlton my Idyot.
1586 G. Whitney Emblems i. 81 The ideot likes, with bables for to plaie.
1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 297 He that's wise in his own conceit, puts on the Idiots hood.
1711 Addison Spect. No. 47 _2 Idiots are still in Request in most of the Courts of Germany, where there is not a Prince of any great Magnificence, who has not two or three dressed, distinguished, undisputed Fools in his Retinue.
3. attrib. or quasi-adj.
a. Appositive, as idiot boy, fool, man, mother.
b. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an idiot or idiocy, idiotic; as idiot face, laugh, look, etc.
1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 308 Ignorancia Non excusat episcopos nec idiotes prestes.
1562 W. Bullein Bk. Sicke Men 69 b, Chaunged into ideotte fooles.
1647 H. More Song of Soul i. ii. lv, A private idiot man.
1700 Dryden Cymon & Iph. 112 Long mute he stood, and_His wonder witness'd with an idiot laugh.
1711 Shaftesbury Charact. (1737) I. 137 Why does an idiot-look and manner destroy the effect of all those outward charms?
1798 Wordsw. (title) The Idiot Boy.
1809 Byron Eng. Bards 248 The tale of Betty Foy, The idiot mother of _an idiot boy'.
1827 Hood Mids. Fairies xciv, To hope my solemn countenance to wring To idiot smiles!
1871 R. Ellis Catullus xxxvii. 6 Or if in idiot impotence arow you sit.
1885 Stevenson Dynamiter xiii. 196 When I look upon your idiot face_the tears spring up.
