idiot

Forms

idiot m (plural idioți, feminine equivalent idioată)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French idiot.^[2][3][4][5] Tiktin and the neologism dictionaries also name the Latin and Greek forms beside the French one.^[6][7] The French word was taken from Latin idiōta at the end of the 12th century;^[8] in Latin it meant an ordinary person, a layman as opposed to an expert.^[9] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs, “private person, layman”), formed on ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, private”).^[1] The DA glosses the Greek word as a private, common, uneducated person.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1780, with the sense “idiotic”, also used as a noun.^[6] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 explains the noun as a stupid, very foolish person who has no idea at all.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Romanian the word has meant a person of very limited mind since its first records; the medical sense, a person with the gravest form of mental deficiency, stands beside the colloquial insult.^[5][3][4] MDA2 labels the plain sense “stupid person” as familiar and an extension of the first.^[4] From the person the adjective passed to what people say or do, an idiotic anger or behaviour.^[5][3]

Romanian derived idioție “idiocy” and idioțenie “stupidity” from it.^[2] Ciorănescu takes idiotism from French, with an older 18th-century borrowing from Modern Greek ἰδιωτισμός (idiotismós) before it.^[2]

Timeline

• 1780 – first record of the word, according to Tiktin.^[6]
• 1848 – idiot in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it as stupid, very foolish, a person without any learning or idea.^[11]
• 1885 – idioată in Delavrancea's Sultănica, MDA2's first record.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Suffering from idiocy, the most severe degree of mental retardation; also as a noun, a person so affected.^[3][4]
2. (colloquial) stupid, foolish; also as a noun, an idiot, a fool: Nu fi idiot!^[4][1]
3. Of words or actions: showing stupidity, absurd: o idee idioată.^[3][1]

Word family

• idioție
• idioțenie
• idiotism

Related words

• Latin idiōta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. idiot
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 487
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1105
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. idiot
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. idiot
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci