Etymology Borrowed from Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus (“weak, feeble”), literally “without a staff”.
1
Obsolete A person with limited mental capacity who can perform tasks and think only like a young child, in medical circles meaning a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal five- to seven-year-old child.
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:
VLADIMIR: Because he wouldn't save them. / ESTRAGON: From hell? / VLADIMIR: Imbecile! From death.1954, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, →ISBN, page 5:
“A rat picked up a drink can and threw it at me?” yelled Mr Big. “A big rat, guv’nor? One of them super-rats?” suggested Thumbs. “It landed on my head, you imbecile!”2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
Etymology Borrowed from Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus (“weak, feeble”), literally “without a staff”.
1
Dated Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; especially, mentally weak.
hospitals for the imbecile and insane
And then that imbecile crowd down on the deck started their little fun, and I could see nothing more for smoke.1899 April, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MII, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part III (Conclusion), page 647: