Word Direct Answers

What does "idiot" mean?

Idiot: An unlearned, ignorant, or simple person, as distinguished from the educated; an ignoramus. [Obs.] 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. C. Blount.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A human being destitute of the ordinary intellectual powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental; commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a natural fool; a natural; an innocent. Life . . . is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Shak.
  2. 3.A fool; a simpleton; -- a term of reproach. Weenest thou make an idiot of our dame Chaucer.

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