Etymology From Middle English idiote, ydiote, from Old French idiote (later idiot), from Latin idiota, from Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs, “a private citizen, one who has no professional knowledge, layman”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, pertaining to oneself, private”). Doublet of idiota. By surface analysis, idi- + -ot.
After failing a hat-trick of exams, the teacher called him an idiot.
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Derogatory A person who makes stupid decisions; a fool.
He thought people who don't like cricket are idiots. He later got into fights with people who like football.
We think that people who cycle without a helmet are idiots.
2 more examples
“He’s an idiot – in terms of saying that. Everybody knows this. Everybody knows it. Nobody doubts it,” Biden said.2019 October 28, Devan Cole, “Biden calls Trump an ‘idiot’ for dismissing Russian election interference”, in CNN:
“One of the things that you write so beautifully, and your stuff is so fun to read, but you write about Trump, quote, ‘The way that you build a truly vicious nationalist movement is to wed a relatively small core of belligerent idiots to a much larger group of opportunists and spineless fellow travelers whose primary function is to turn a blind eye to things,’” Kennedy said, reading Taibbi’s own writing back to him.2024 November 21, Andrew Kaczynski, “RFK Jr. compared Trump to Hitler and praised descriptions of his supporters as ‘Nazis’”, in CNN:
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Human sciences, Medicine, Psychology, SciencesObsolete A person of the lowest intellectual standing, a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal four-year-old; a person with an IQ below 30.
Idiots were thought to be peculiarly under the care of the Deity, and it was believed that those who treated them kindly would be blessed.1896, Clifton Johnson, “Folks”, in What They Say in New England (non-fiction), Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Lee and Shepard Publishers, page 105:
It is an offence for a man to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman whom he knows to be an idiot or imbecile.1956, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Part I, section 7”, in Sexual Offences Act 1956, page 2:
Etymology From Middle English idiote, ydiote, from Old French idiote (later idiot), from Latin idiota, from Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs, “a private citizen, one who has no professional knowledge, layman”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, pertaining to oneself, private”). Doublet of idiota. By surface analysis, idi- + -ot.
In his moronic book, _The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design_ (2004), 334pp., the IDiot William Dembski writes on page 305 about how a fellow IDiot was fired from a research position at a "prestigious molecular biology laboratory" the very same day a press story appeared exposing this character as being an IDiot.2004 March 12, David Ford, “Re: How is this for an ID lesson plan?”, in talk.origins (Usenet), message-ID <b1c67abe.0403121312.35d2e0c@posting.google.com>:
Nor does any sane or rational person believe any enzyme fell together all at once purely by chance - that is the domain of creotards, IDiots, and theoloons.2008 October 17, Prof Weird, “Re: Pretty cool eh?”, in talk.origins (Usenet), message-ID <9f2b4ea1-f138-4ff1-b526-ea6ba94156e4@l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com>:
1 more example
Thus all sciences, including evolution, are guided by the available objective physical evidence while all creationism regularly rejects any implications of objective physical evidence which does not support their IDiot Bibliolatry.2012 September 18, Virgil, “Re: Creationists SUICIDAL After Evidence Dumps Them”, in alt.talk.creationism (Usenet), message-ID <virgil-2B02C7.14220718092012@bignews.usenetmonster.com>: