Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Idiot
Id′i-ot
(ĭd′ĭ-ŏt)
, Noun.
[F.
idiot
, L. idiota
an uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed person, Gr. ἰδιώτης
, also and orig., a private person, not holding public office, fr. ἴδιοσ
proper, peculiar. See Idiom
.] 1.
A man in private station, as distinguished from one holding a public office.
[Obs.]
St. Austin affirmed that the plain places of Scripture are sufficient to all laics, and all
idiots
or private persons. Jer. Taylor.
2.
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.
Life . . . is a tale
Told by an
Signifying nothing.
Told by an
idiot
, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.
Shakespeare
4.
A fool; a simpleton; – a term of reproach.
Weenest thou make an
idiot
of our dame? Chaucer.
Webster 1828 Edition
Idiot
ID'IOT
, n.[L. idiota; Gr. private,vulgar,unskilled, peculiar, that is, separate, simple. See Idiom.]1.
A natural fool or fool from his birth; a human being in form, but destitute of reason, or the ordinary intellectual powers of man. A person who has understanding enough to measure a yard of cloth, number twenty correctly, tell the days of the week, &c., is not an idiot in the eye of the law.
2.
A foolish person; one unwise.