PHEEBLE-MINDED PHOOLISHNESS
Idiots, Imbeciles, Morons and Fools — If You Think They’re Synonyms, You’re Ignorant
Which is not as bad as you think it is
From the wonderful sub-specialty of Pejorative Medicine comes the following … idiot, imbecile, moron.
Actually, fool that I am, I led with a lie.
Idiot, imbecile and moron are from the wonderful worlds of medicine and law, and not the pejorative kind.
Although the words idiot, imbecile and moron are now considered offensive, they were once used in an attempt to define various degrees of intellectual impairment.
An idiot was the most profoundly impaired, with a mental age of two or less, unable to function independently or learn speech. In a further attempt at precision, a idiot was considered to have an intelligence quotient (IQ) of less than 20, although this is variably defined. An average IQ is 100.
Next up in the bad-old-days hierarchy is imbecile, with IQ’s ranging from 20 to 49.
Morons have IQ’s in the 50 to 70 range.
All these terms and several others were abandoned in the 1960’s as measures of intelligence were refined. All have been replaced with far less negative, and far more…
