Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Idiot indicated the greatest degree of intellectual disability in which a person's mental age is below three years. Imbecile indicated an intellectual disability less severe than idiocy and a mental age between three and seven years. Moron was defined as someone a mental age between eight and twelve. [85]
Moron is a term once used in psychology and psychiatry to denote mild intellectual disability. [1] The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement. [2] Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community, as it was used more commonly as an insult than as a psychological term.
Before the Act, learning institutions for idiots and imbeciles were seen as either "licensed houses" or "registered hospitals" for lunatics, for which the parents of children hoping to enter would have to complete a form stating that they were "a lunatic, an idiot, or a person of unsound mind".
[1] [2] The word arises from the Latin word imbecillus, meaning weak, or weak-minded. [3] It originally referred to people of the second order in a former and discarded classification of intellectual disability, with a mental age of three to seven years and an IQ of 25–50, above "idiot" (IQ below 25) and below "moron" (IQ of 51–70). [4]
this English version included a category for idiocy (questions 1–6), which measures a mental age of 1–2, and the addition of tests 17a and 50a. [1] It also focused on distinguishing between different levels of mental ability. Arranged from lowest to highest, these were: 'idiot', 'imbecile', 'moron' and 'normal'. [1]
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Discover the best free online games at AOL.com - Play board, card, casino, puzzle and many more online games while chatting with others in real-time.
An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. 'Idiot' was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot guard themself against common physical dangers.