| 释义 |
▪ I. idiot, n.|ˈɪdɪət|
Forms: 4 ydyote, 4–5 ydiotte, 4–6 -ot(e, yd-, idyot, 5 idyote, -othe, ydeote, 6 ydeot(te, ideot(t)e, idiotte, 4–7 idiote, 4–9 ideot, 4– idiot.
[a. F. idiot (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It., Sp., Pg. idiota, ad. L. idiōta uneducated, ignorant person, ad. Gr. ἰδιώτης private person, common man, plebeian, one without professional knowledge, ‘layman’; and so, ignorant, ill-informed person, f. ἴδιος private, own, peculiar.
In the 16th c., instances of the word are found with initial n, transferred from an (a nidiot:—an idiot); nidiot was further popularly corrupted to nidget (q.v.). With the latter cf. the modern vulgar pronunciation, sometimes graphically represented as idget.]
†1.
a. A person without learning; an ignorant, uneducated man; a simple man; a clown. Obs.
This use is app. partly due to passages in the Vulgate or Greek N.T., esp. Acts iv. 13, 1 Cor. xiv. 16.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 170, I..ȝede forth as an ydiote in contre to aspye After Pieres þe plowman. c1440J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. i. 288 Ryght as be twelue ydiotes, sent Austyn seyth, hee meneth the apostellis, for thei not lerned were. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 287/1 The bisshop repreuyd hym sore as unconnyng and an ydeote. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 23 A most common kinde of speech, wherewithall euen the verie idiots were acquainted. 1647H. More Poems Pref., It would be safer to ask the judgment of young lads or Countrey idiots..then those lubricous wits and overworn Philosophers. 1657(title) The Deuine Louer, or the Sainctly Ideots Deuotions. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 374, I..confess my self an Ideot, understanding no other Language than Turkish. 1722J. Covel Acc. Grk. Ch. 353 There is also this very remarkable passage in the Cardinal; Idiotæ qui vident Picturas, Ideots who see these Pictures [etc.].
†b. spec. A layman. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 46 We dwelten to-gidre in chirchis, & weren idiotis, & vnderloute to ale men. 1611Panegyr. Verses in Coryat's Crudities, For he would not Take orders but remaine an Idiote. 1638Featly Strict. Lyndom. i. 158 That hee that supplieth the place of the idiot or laye-man in answering for the people shall understand. 1660Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. i. ii. rule ii. §5 The holy and innocent ideot, or plain easy people of the Laity.
†c. One not professionally learned or skilled; also, a private (as opposed to a public) man. Obs.
1638F. Junius Paint. Ancients 75 If any one should bid an idiot take the instruments and mend what he blameth in the Artificers, he should never be able to doe it. 1651Jer. Taylor Clerus Dom. 54 In the form of Ideots and private persons. 1663Boyle Exp. & Nat. Philos. i. 17 Idiots admire in things the Beauty of their Materials, but Artists that of the Workmanship.
2. a. A person so deficient in mental or intellectual faculty as to be incapable of ordinary acts of reasoning or rational conduct. Applied to one permanently so afflicted, as distinguished from one who is temporarily insane, or ‘out of his wits’, and who either has lucid intervals, or may be expected to recover his reason.
By the older legal authorities an idiot is defined as one congenitally deficient in reasoning powers, a ‘natural fool’ (cf. quot. 1590), and this is still the common implication of the term. In quot. 1440 = half-wit.
a1300Cursor M. 10456 (Cott.) Þou sais to me als til a sott, Haldes þou me for ani idiot [Gött. a fole]? c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 311 Wenestow make an ydyot of oure dame? c1425Found. St. Bartholomew's (E.E.T.S.) 13 He made and feyned hym-self vnwyse..and owtward pretendid the cheyr of an ydiotte. c1440Promp. Parv. 258/2 Idyote, neither fowle ne ryghte wyce (H. idyote, halfe innocent..), idiota. 1590Swinburne Testaments ii. 39 An Idiote, or a naturall foole is he, who notwithstanding he bee of lawfull age, yet he is so witlesse, that hee can not number to twentie, nor can tell what age he is of, nor knoweth who is his father, or mother, nor is able to answer to any such easie question. 1648Milton Tenure Kings (1650) 52 By the civil laws a foole or Idiot born shall lose the lands whereto he is born because he is not able to use them aright. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xi. (1695) 77 Idiots make very few or no Propositions, and reason scarce at all. 1793Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiog. III. lii. 247 Who can explain wherein consists the difference of organization between an ideot and another man? 1845Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) II. 62 Persons insane (in which class are..to be included idiots who have had no understanding from their birth, as well as lunatics who..have lost the use of their reason).
b. A term of reprobation for one who speaks or acts in what the speaker considers an irrational way, or with extreme stupidity or folly; a blockhead, an utter fool.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, Theodera 148 Wenand I ware sic a ydiot, þat þu suld wit my priuete. a1568Coverdale Bk. Death iii. iii. (1579) 258 O thou great ydiote, thou lamentest, that thy name and honour perisheth in this transitorie worlde. 1620Granger Div. Logike 381 Many obdurate Popish Idiotes say, that all things are so deare..because there is so much preaching. 1713Addison Ct. Tariff, He called them ideots and blockheads. 1796Bp. Watson Apol. Bible 283 He would have been an ideot, had he put it in the power of his enemies to prove [etc.]. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge li, You idiot, do you know what peril you stand in? [1880Mrs. Whitney Odd or Even? xv. 136, ‘I think people are ‘idgets’!’ said Frances.]
†c. A man of weak intellect maintained to afford amusement to others; a household or court fool; a professional fool or jester. idiot's hood, a fool's cap. Obs.
1526Will of T. Goldisburgh (Somerset Ho.), To Richard Carlton my Idyot. 1586G. Whitney Emblems i. 81 The ideot likes, with bables for to plaie. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 297 He that's wise in his own conceit, puts on the Idiots hood. 1711Addison Spect. No. 47 ⁋2 Idiots are still in Request in most of the Courts of Germany, where there is not a Prince of any great Magnificence, who has not two or three dressed, distinguished, undisputed Fools in his Retinue.
3. attrib. or quasi-adj.
a. Appositive, as idiot boy, idiot fool, idiot man, idiot mother.
b. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an idiot or idiocy, idiotic; as idiot face, idiot laugh, idiot look, etc.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 308 Ignorancia Non excusat episcopos nec idiotes prestes. 1562W. Bullein Bk. Sicke Men 69 b, Chaunged into ideotte fooles. 1647H. More Song of Soul i. ii. lv, A private idiot man. 1700Dryden Cymon & Iph. 112 Long mute he stood, and..His wonder witness'd with an idiot laugh. 1711Shaftesbury Charact. (1737) I. 137 Why does an idiot-look and manner destroy the effect of all those outward charms? 1798Wordsw. (title) The Idiot Boy. 1809Byron Bards & Rev. 248 The tale of Betty Foy, The idiot mother of ‘an idiot boy’. 1827Hood Mids. Fairies xciv, To hope my solemn countenance to wring To idiot smiles! 1871R. Ellis Catullus xxxvii. 6 Or if in idiot impotence arow you sit. 1885Stevenson Dynamiter xiii. 196 When I look upon your idiot face..the tears spring up.
4. Comb., as idiot-born, idiot-dull, idiot-like adjs.; idiot-worshipper. idiot asylum, a term formerly used for a hospital for the mentally ill; idiot board colloq., a prompting board held before a television speaker but not projected on the film; idiot box colloq., a television set; also transf.; idiot card colloq., = idiot board; idiot fringe, (a) a fringe of hair in a style once worn (see quots.); (b) (occas.) = lunatic fringe; idiot light colloq., a warning light, usu. red, that goes on when a fault occurs in a mechanical or electrical device; idiot-proof a. colloq. = fool-proof a., esp. of equipment; idiot sheet colloq., = idiot board; idiot stick U.S. slang, a shovel; idiot stitch, tricot-stitch, the easiest stitch in crochet work.
1866J. MacGregor Thousand Miles in Rob Roy Canoe (ed. 2) vi. 104 Close to the inn was the idiot asylum, an old castle with poor demented women in it. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad I. xxv. 250 They meant an asylum—an idiot asylum. 1952Newsweek 4 Aug. 51/2 The Republicans and the Democrats got their ‘idiot boards’ free. 1961G. Millerson Technique Television Production x. 194 (caption) Held-up cue card, idiot board, goof sheet. 1971Radio Times 4 Nov. 6/4, I can never work with an auto-cue or idiot board. I learn my lines before the show.
1793Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiog. III. xxxvi. 186 The idiot-born cannot without a miracle become a philosopher.
1959P. Bull I know Face xi. 193 The rationing period, when my very existence depended on the magic idiot-box. 1965Lancet 2 Jan. 46/2 Often they may be found, in semi-hypnotic state, watching the ‘idiot box’ with its endless stream of images and fullness of sound, all signifying nothing. 1972P. Flower Cobweb ii. 72, I thought you spent all your time with the idiot box. 1973Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. CCXI. 282 We assume that the modern general purpose computer is an idiot-box capable of performing only the simplest of routines.
1959Globe & Mail (Toronto) 18 Sept. 1/7 No one held up an ‘idiot card’—a prompter's card for actors who have forgotten their lines. 1960B. Keaton Wonderful World of Slapstick (1967) 238 They had worked out an interesting technique for these foreign-language remakes. They used ‘idiot cards’. On these the foreign words are spelled out in phonetic English and held up beyond camera range. 1969New Yorker 27 Sept. 86/3 We had all the written questions put on idiot cards, and then the people read them before the camera.
1845Mrs. Norton Child of Islands (1846) 152 Blind! and adder-deaf, and idiot-dull.
1886H. Baumann Londinismen 81/1 Idiot-fringe, fransenartig auf die Stirn herabgekämmtes Haar der Fabrikmädchen, Hökerweiber u.s.w. 1923J. Manchon Le Slang 130 Fringe, le devant des cheveux dans la coiffure à la chien (habituelle chez les femmes de la basse classe). On dit aussi idiot-fringe. 1965Spectator 5 Mar. 286/1 An article on a small and dying idiot-fringe sect of nationalists in North Germany. 1968E. McGirr Lead-Lined Coffin iii. 173 He watched the idiot lights in the dashboard..for the warning red which would betoken he had lost the oil. 1971M. Tak Truck Talk 88 Idiot light, a small light sometimes found on the front end of a tractor, the light turns on when the ignition is started.
a1603T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 662 A childish and idiotelike pole. 1612Rowlands Knave of Hearts B b, My Stockings Ideot-like, red, greene, and yealow. 1818Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXIII. 288 They, ideot-like, stand staring and sucking their fingers.
1977Economist 8 Oct. 90/2 Viewdata's image could be bungled if the equipment proves not to be idiot-proof. 1985McGraw-Hill's Biotechnol. Newswatch V. 21/2, I hate to use the term ‘idiot-proof’,..but our end-users for this assay are not technically trained.
1961A. Berkman Singers' Gloss. Show Business 29 Idiot sheet, a large placard or paper roll, on which is [sic] printed the actual lines to be spoken by an announcer or performer. The printed characters are large enough to be seen from quite a distance from the camera. 1962R. Bretz Techniques Television Production 487 When cue cards first came into use for full script purposes, they were known derisively as ‘idiot sheets’.
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §75/32 Shovel, idiot stick. 1968R. F. Adams Western Words (rev. ed.) 158/1 Idiot stick, what the miner calls his shovel; sometimes shortened to idiot.
1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, Idiot stitch, one of the names given to Tricot Stitch.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 7 Thou picture of what thou seem'st, and idoll of ideot⁓worshippers.
▪ II. idiot, v. nonce-wd.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To call (any one) ‘idiot’.
1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 590 Much befooled and idioted. |