idiotism en · NOUN · etymology 1
Etymology
Etymology tree English idiot Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English idiotism From idiot + -ism.
Meanings
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(countable, historical, uncountable) Very severe mental retardation.
Idiotism had long been accepted as hopeless: ‘Absolute idiocy admits of no cure,’ noted the nineteenth-century psychiatrist George Man Burrows (1771–1846).
1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 488:He did not perceive that regal power, in a few generations, introduces idiotism into the noble stem […]
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC:
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(countable, uncountable) A foolish utterance.
[…] that clear soprano, in nursery, rings out a shower of innocent idiotisms over the half-stripped baby, and suspends the bawl upon its lips.
1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| idiotisms | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Translations (1)
sk idiotizmus (Translations)