Imbecile

Podcast 1 · Introduction

Imbecile

A documentary-style narration: origin, meaning, and feel.

Part of speech

noun and adjective

Pronunciation

IM-buh-seel  /ˈɪmbɪsiːl/

Definition

A stupid person; a term of contempt for someone regarded as very foolish or incompetent. Historically, a medical classification of intellectual disability (now obsolete and offensive).

Plain meaning

Imbecile today is an insult meaning a very stupid or foolish person. In earlier 20th-century medicine, imbecile was a clinical term for a person with a moderate intellectual disability, slotted between idiot (the most severe) and moron (the least severe) on a three-level classification scale. All three terms have since been retired from medicine and are now only used as insults.

Register

Informal and offensive as an insult. The historical medical sense is obsolete and deeply stigmatising. The word should be used with awareness of its eugenicist history.