idiota

Forms

idiota m or f (masculine and feminine plural idiotas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin idiōta (“layman; uneducated person”), from Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs, “private person; layman; ignorant person”).^[2][3][1] The BDELC takes it straight from the Greek word.^[4] García de Diego calls it a learned word.^[5]

The Greek noun is formed from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, private”) with the suffix -ώτης (-ṓtēs).^[6][1] In Greek it meant a private person as opposed to the State or to an official, then a layman as opposed to an expert, and an ignorant person.^[6][4] Latin used it for an ordinary person, a layman or amateur, and Medieval Latin for an unlettered person, a recent convert and a lay brother.^[7][8]

Gómez de Silva derives the modern sense from French idiot.^[9] García de Diego derives zote “dolt” from a base Vulgar Latin *idiotus that reached Spanish through French.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (stanza 221), in the sense “unlettered”: a priest who knew only one Mass is denounced to his bishop, qe era idïota, mal clérigo provado “that he was an ignoramus, proved a bad cleric”.^[2][10][11] The CDH's copy of the text is of the 18th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century Pedro de Cuéllar's Catecismo (1325) uses it for unlearned clergy, and Fernández de Heredia's Plutarch for a private man, as in Greek: beuir como hombre ydiota en su tierra “to live as a private man in his own country”.^[10] The sense “ignorant, unlettered” lasted through the Golden Age;^[2][4] Juan de Valdés still used the word as a neologism, and Cervantes uses it in the Quijote.^[2][4] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 glosses Latin idiota as one who knows nothing but his own, and Percyvall in 1591 translates it “an idiot, a lay”.^[12][13]

Autoridades still defines it as an ignorant person without learning, and reports two etymologies, from Greek words meaning “one's own language” and “plebeian”.^[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 has “a rustic, dull and very ignorant person”.^[15] Domínguez in 1846 already gave “stupid, wholly incapable of thought” and a medical sense.^[16] According to Corominas the modern sense reached the Academy's dictionary in 1869.^[2][4] The 1884 edition defines it as “lacking understanding, imbecile”.^[17] The DLE now gives “foolish” first, then “conceited without reason” and the medical sense, and marks “uneducated” as obsolete.^[3]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses it in the Milagros de Nuestra Señora.^[2][4]
• 1325 – Pedro de Cuéllar applies it to ignorant clergy.^[10]
• 1379–1384 – Fernández de Heredia's Plutarch uses ydiota for a private man.^[10]
• 1526 – the first record from the Americas, hombre idiota e sin letras “an ignorant, unlettered man”, in Nicaragua.^[18]
• 1580 – the related idiotismo “idiom” is first recorded.^[2]
• 1613 – Cervantes uses idiotez.^[2]
• 1846 – Domínguez defines it as utter mental incapacity.^[16]
• 1869 – the modern sense enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2][4]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as “lacking understanding, imbecile” and gives the etymology.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. stupid, slow-witted; also as a noun and as an insult: No seas idiota y cierra la puerta.^[3][1]
2. conceited without any grounds; also as a noun.^[3][1]
3. Typical of an idiot: una sonrisa idiota.^[3][19]
4. (medicine) Suffering from idiocia; also as a noun.^[3][20]
5. (obsolete) Lacking all education.^[3]

Noun

1. An idiot, a fool; a jerk.^[1][3]

Word family

• idiotez
• idiotizar

Related words

• idioma
• idiotismo
• idiosincrasia
• Latin idiōta
• French idiot

Usage notes

Wiktionary lists the phrases caja idiota “idiot box, television” and idiota útil “useful idiot”.^[1] Corominas notes that idiocia is a Gallicism that has hardly been used.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 437
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. idiota
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. idioma
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3322
6. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 366
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. idiota
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 412
12. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. idiota
13. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 156
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 204
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 398
16. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 978
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 583
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. idiota
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. idiota
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. idiota