idiota

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ɪ.diˈoː.ta]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [i.diˈɔː.ta]^[1]

Forms

idiōta m (genitive idiōtae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs, “private person, layman”),^[2][3][1] from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, private”).^[1][4] Isidore of Seville explains it as an unskilled person, and the glossaries render it as prīvātus and indoctus.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Lucilius, in the late 2nd century BC,^[6][5] who complains that someone might call him “unlettered and a layman”.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It meant an ordinary person as opposed to an expert, a layman or amateur, and Cicero uses it of those whom a connoisseur of art looks down on as ignorant.^[2][7] Seneca the Elder has it for a private individual holding no public office, its Greek sense.^[2] Quintilian uses idiotae for the common crowd.^[7]

In Late and Medieval Latin it meant an ignorant or illiterate person, a recent convert, a lay brother, and a private person.^[8][1] Through Old French it gave English idiot in the early 14th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it for an unlettered man.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for laymen in matters of art.^[2][6]
• 1st century BC – Vitruvius distinguishes craftsmen from idiotae.^[2]
• Middle Ages – It means an illiterate person and a lay brother.^[8]
• early 14th century – Through Old French it gives English idiot.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ordinary person, layman, amateur; an ignorant person.^[2][7]
2. A private individual.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) An illiterate person; a recent convert; a lay brother.^[8]

Related words

• English idiot

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill