cretin
/ˈkrɛtɪn
/noun
1 informal, offensive A stupid person (used as a general term of abuse).
2 Medicine, dated A person who is physically deformed and has learning difficulties because of congenital thyroid deficiency.This congenital hypothyroidism, unlike the neurological cretin, is amenable to treatment with thyroid hormones.
Derivatives
cretinism
- It is a kind of baroque apotheosis of geopolitical cretinism.
- It is called cretinism and it is characterised by inaction.
- There is a kind of infantilism, a kind of cultural cretinism, which has flourished in areas of Scotland.
cretinous
- Or maybe the cretinous slob is confusing criticism with genocide.
- But the cretinous behaviour of the few can never take away from the happy and celebratory atmosphere engendered by the many.
- Anonymous bloggers often allow cretinous behavior in their comments sections.
cretinously
cretinize
Origin
Late 18th century: from French crétin, from Swiss French crestin 'Christian' (from Latin Christianus), here used to mean 'human being', apparently as a reminder that, though deformed, cretins were human and not beasts.
Cretin is now a term of abuse, but was originally a medical term for a person physically and mentally handicapped as a result of congenital thyroid deficiency. The word is from French crétin, from Swiss French crestin ‘Christian’, used to mean ‘human creature’ but in this context with a compassionate sense of ‘poor fellow’. Thyroid problems were once common in the Alps, where the soil lacks essential iodine.