Ĭd′/i-ot, n.
n. [Fr. idiot, It., Sp., & Lat. idiota, from Gr. ἰδιώτης, a private, uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed person, from ἴδιος, proper, peculiar.]
Sense 1. A man in private station, as distinguished from one holding a public office; a person in private life. [Obs.]
Humility is a duty in great ones as well as idiots. Bp. Taylor.
St. Austin affirmed that the plain places of Scripture are sufficient to all laics, and all idiots or private persons. Bp. Taylor.
Sense 2. An unlearned, ignorant, or foolish person, as distinguished from the educated. [Obs.]
Christ was received of idiots, of the vulgar people, and of the simpler sort, while he was rejected, despised, and persecuted even to death by the high priests, lawyers, scribes, doctors, and rabbis. Blount.
Sense 3. A human being destitute of the ordinary intellectual powers of man; and as this condition is generally accompanied with congenital malformation or disease, a natural fool, or fool from birth; a natural; an innocent; a simpleton.
Life is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Shak.