Idiot

Idiot is a word derived from the Greek, idiōtēs ("layman," "person lacking professional skill," "a private citizen," "individual"), from , idios ("private," "one's own"). In Latin the word idiota ("ordinary person, layman") preceded the Late Latin meaning "uneducated or ignorant person." Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person"). The related word idiocy dates to 1487 and may have been analagously modeled on the words prophet and prophecy.

The word has cognates in Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish.

History
"Idiot" was originally used in ancient Greek city-states to refer to people who were overly concerned with their own self-interest and ignored the needs of the community. Declining to take part in public life, such as (semi-)democratic government of the polis (city state), such as the Athenian democracy, was considered dishonorable. "Idiots" were seen as having bad judgment in public and political matters. Over time, the term "idiot" shifted away from its original connotation of selfishness and came to refer to individuals with overall bad judgment–individuals who are "stupid".

In modern English usage, the terms "idiot" and "idiocy" describe an extreme folly or stupidity, its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.

Disability
In 19th and early 20th-century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very severe mental retardation or a very low IQ level, as a sufferer of cretinism, defining idiots as people whose IQ were below 20 (with a standard deviation of 16); Mongolian idiot (or Mongoloid idiot) was applied to people who had Down syndrome.

In current medical classification, these people are now said to have profound mental retardation, and the word "idiot" is no longer used as a scientific term.

In literature
A few authors have used "idiot" characters in novels, plays and poetry. Often these characters are used to highlight or indicate something else (allegory). Examples 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 William Shakespeare's King Lear. In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, the idiocy of the main character, Duke Myshkin, is attributed more to his honesty, trustfulness, kindness, and humility, than to a lack of intellectual ability.

Other uses

 * The Idiot is a classic in world literature, in Russian, by Dostoyevsky and the title of an album by Iggy Pop.
 * In June of 2005, New York State Assemblyman Will Stephens sent an e-mail to his constituents referring to them as 'pontificating idiots'.
 * "Idiot box" is a slang term for television, or for a dialog box on a computer.
 * "Walk Idiot Walk" is a song performed by the rock music group The Hives and released on the band's 2004 album, Tyrannosaurus Hives.
 * "Idiot savant" was the original term for someone having what is now called savant syndrome. It was 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 Sox outfielder Johnny Damon affectionately 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 1960s and 1970s 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 do not 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, released in 2003 as a methodological approach to describing literally everything imaginable, was not a huge success.
 * There also exists a series of guides and handbooks, each called The Complete Idiot's Guide to...; the provocative title did not help sales here either
 * Idioterne ("idiots") is an 1998 movie by Lars von Trier.
 * One of Napoleon Dynamite's most popular catch-phrases in that movie was using the word "Idiot".
 * American Idiot, the album and single by Green Day is a euphemism for President George W. Bush.
 * After shooting a double-bogey on the 18th hole of the 2006 PGA U.S. Open, Phil Mickelson referred to himself by saying "I'm such an idiot".

Quotes

 * "it is true of idiots, that the more absurd and foolish they are, and the more their opinions diverge from those universally held, the more likely are they to utter no word which they will wish to recall" - St. Augustine in Letter 143 to Marcellinus (A.D. 412)
 * "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." (Mark Twain, c.1882)
 * "Never argue with an idiot. He will lower you to his level and beat you with experience." (Bob Smith, c. 1962)

Sources and External links

 * 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 Old French idiote "uneducated or ignorant person," from Latin idiota "ordinary person, layman," in Late Latin "uneducated or ignorant person," from Greek idiotes "layman, person lacking professional skill," literally "private person," used patronizingly for "ignorant person," from idios "one's own".
 * on cretinism