Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ID'I-OT, n. [L. idiota; Gr. ιδιωτης, private, vulgar, unskilled, from ιδιος, peculiar, that is, separate, simple; Sp. and It. idiota; Fr. idiot. See Idiom.]

1. A natural fool, or fool from his birth; a human being in form, but destitute of reason; or the ordinary intellectual powers of man. A person who has understanding enough to measure a yard of cloth, number twenty correctly, tell the days of the week, &c., is not an idiot in the eye of the law. Encyc.
2. A foolish person; one unwise. [“A collection of picturesque words, found among our ancient writers, would constitute a precious supplement to the history of our language. Far more expressive than our term of executioner is their solemn one of the deathsman; – than our vagabond their scatterling; – than our idiot or lunatic their moonling; a word which Mr. Gifford observes, should not have been suffered to grow obsolete.” D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, 2d Series, 2d edit. vol. i. p. 407. – E. H. B.] [See Innocent.]