2020-11-08 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M - moron – idiot - imbecile
2020-11-08
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M - moron – idiot - imbecile
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้องนี้ เป็นไปตามมาตรฐานการใช้ภาษา
การใช้คำอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐาน ถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง moron = ‘MAWR-on’
ออกเสียง idiot = ‘ID-ee-uht’
ออกเสียง imbecile = ‘IM-buh-sil’ or British = ‘IM-buh-seel’
Dictionary.com
ABOUT THIS WORD MORON
More context on moron
Calling someone a moron is all in good fun, right?
Not so much. While moron can sound like a simple schoolyard taunt,
the term was originally used by psychologists toclassify someone
as having mild intellectual disabilities.
What’s more, prominent psychologists, notably Henry H. Goddard,
who used the label moron promoted eugenics.
Moron is no longer in use as a medical term, and it’s offensive
and ableist to equate someone you think is acting foolish to a person with a disability.
If knowing the history of moron has got you reflecting on your word choices,
this slideshow, “These Common Words Have Offensive Histories,” discusses
many other words whose place in your vocab you may want to reconsider.
Like moron, the words idiot, imbecile, and feeble-minded
were also once used in psychology to label people with intellectual disabilities or mental deficiencies.
Now, we’re not condoning any name-calling,
but we’re also not naive—we know it happens!
But, we can at least alert to the fact there are plenty of alternatives
to moron that don’t come with so much painful baggage:
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Word History
The Clinical History of 'Moron,' 'Idiot,' and 'Imbecile'
The words have a less-than-savory past
Many of us have occasion to express displeasure with the actions or behavior of another, and in order to do so sometimes choose to impugn that person's level of intelligence with a choice insulting word or two.
(Or way more than two! It depends.)
We're fine with that, but would like to point out that a certain contingent of go-
to insults have a history of clinical use which makes them less desirable to use than others.
Idiot, imbecile, and moron were, not so long ago, used in a psychological classification system, and each one was assigned to a fairly specific range of abilities.
Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.
Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.
Morons. —Those whose mental development is abovethat of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
— Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912
Of these three words moron is the newest (it dates to the early 20th century), and the only one coined specifically for the purpose of medical diagnosis.
The word comes from the Greek mōros, meaning "foolish, stupid," and shares this etymology with words such as sophomore ("a student in the second year at college or a 4-year secondary school") and morosoph ("a learned fool").
Imbecile began its life in English in the 16th century as an adjective, and meant "weak, feeble" (the word comes from the Latin imbecillus, "weak, weak-minded"). It wasn't until the early 19th century that the word began to be used as a noun.
Order Murat to attack and destroy four or five thousand men in such a direction, it was done in a moment; but leave him to himself he was an imbécile without judgment.
— Barry O'Meara, The Atheneum (Boston, MA), 1 Sept. 1822
Idiot, from the Greek idios ("private" or "one's own"), is the oldest of these words, and has been in continual use since the 14th century. Over the years idiot has taken on a number of meanings, ranging from "an ignorant or unschooled person" to "jester, professional fool" to "Stimpy" (of "Ren and" fame). And since at least the 17th century the word has been used in theater in a colloquial insulting sense similar to how it is often heard today.
Rapture? You Fool, you Idiot, I tell thee I did but counterfeit—Unloose me—these wicked Women will take the Helm of Government out of my hand else....
— (Anonymous), Mr. Turbulent: or The Melanchollicks, 1682
The clinical applications of these words is now a thing of the past, and we hope no one reading this would be so callous as to try to resurrect their use. The generalized use of all three of these terms is well established in our language, and they may be found used as terms of opprobrium for someone who acts stupidly, but who is not necessarily cognitively impaired.
'Edna — stop — it's all my fault. I'm a fool — I'm a thundering idiot. I've spoiled your afternoon.
— Katherine Mansfield, Something Childish but Very Natural, 1924
When Efuru went home, Ajanupu could not help admiring her character. 'She is a woman among women. I like the way she is carrying her burden. She still loves that imbecile husband of hers and she is going in search of him.'
— Flora Nwapa, Efuru, 1966
JODY: Oh, Mother, please. I'm not a moron.
ROZ: Miss know-it-all! Well, make your own mistakes.
— Megan Terry, Hothouse, 1974
If you choose to use these words in some hierarchical order to separate those drivers who cut you off on the highway from those who merely fail to turn off their blinkers, we're not in a position to stop you. However, we will point out that the English language is broad and magnificent enough that when you really need to lay into someone, you may do so in a properly considerate manner, and without resorting to potentially offensive and antiquated psychological jargon. Jobbernowl, loblolly, driveler ... these offer just a glimpse of the many non-clinical ways our language has of referring to those chuckleheads in your way.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Idiot Has Greek Roots
The Greek adjective idios means “one’s own” or “private.”
The derivative noun idiōtēs means “private person.”
A Greek idiōtēs was a person who was not in the public eye, who held no public office. From this came the sense “common man,” and later “ignorant person”—a natural extension, for the common people of ancient Greece were not, in general, particularly learned.
The English idiot originally meant “ignorant person,” but the more usual reference now is to a person who lacks basic intelligence or common sense rather than education.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Idiot
Idiot was also among our trending words this week; the word spiked in lookups after a congresswoman asked a Google executive why the word appeared to be linked with images of Donald Trump in search results.
In an effort to understand how Google search algorithms work,
a Democratic congresswoman asked the tech company’s chief executive a simple question: “If you Google the word ‘idiot' under images, a picture of Donald Trump comes up. How would that happen? How does search work so that that would occur?”
— Colby Itkowitz, The Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2018
Idiot is widely used today to mean “a foolish or stupid person.”
The word has an earlier meaning, now quite dated and considered offensive,
which is “a person affected with extreme mental retardation.”
Idiot came into English from the Latin idiota, meaning “ignorant person”;
prior to Latin the word may be traced to the Greek idiōtēs
(“one in a private station, layman, ignorant person”).
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
idiot noun id·i·ot | \ ˈi-dē-ət \
Legal Definition of idiot
: a person with especially a profound intellectual disability
NOTE: While the terms idiot, imbecile, and moron survive in many state codes and statutes, they are generally no longer used in both medical and legal contexts.
The modern terminology distinguishes between mild, moderate, severe, and profound levels of disability.
Historically persons with intellectual disabilities have been deprived of certain rights
(as in not being allowed to vote).
Generally today, an adult with an intellectual disability who is his or her own guardian is not deprived of these rights.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Trend Watch
'Moron' Spikes After Tillerson Reports
The word has become a blanket term for “a very stupid person”
4 Oct 2017
Moron was among our top lookups on October 4th, 2017, after it was widely reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had recently considered resigning and also had used the word in reference to President Donald Trump. Tillerson has disputed the accuracy of some of the reports.
Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, in a hastily convened news conference on Wednesday, denied that he had ever considered resigning and dismissed an NBC News article reporting that he had called President Trump a “moron.”
— Eileen Sullivan and Gardiner Harris, The New York Times, 4 Oct. 2017
Moron has two definitions, one clinical and one colloquial.
The clinical one is the older of the two (although still quite recent), dating from 1910, and was proposed by psychologists as a technical term for those with a certain degree of mental impairment. This sense is now quite dated, and it is considered offensive to use moron in this fashion.
The informal sense began to be used shortly after the technical one, and very quickly supplanted it, becoming a general-purpose term of abuse for “a very stupid person.”
”It seems to me sometimes that I am no more than an old moron and understand nothing, because otherwise I must allow for such loathsomeness…Silence!” he roared, and again the oldsters started and smiled.
— Vladimir Nabokov, Invitation to a Beheading, 1935-6 (1959)
In case you were wondering, moron and oxymoron do share a root;
both words come from the Greek mōros (“foolish, stupid”).
Oxymoron, however, is considerably older, dating in use to the middle of the 17th century.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
moron – idiot - imbecile
Such experts in dealing with the human mind as psychologists
and psychiatrists have never agreed
on the exact meaning of these terms for mental deficiency.
Each word is loosely used for individuals
who seem silly, stupid, dull, half-witted, and foolish;
each is often rejected in favor of dunce, dolt, and numbskull.
In the scale of mental ability, an idiot ranks below a moron or an imbecile.
An idiot is one judged to beutterly senseless, foolish, and hopelessly deficient in developing beyond the mental age of three or four.
An imbecile ranks abovean idiot but lacks the capacity to develop beyond a mental age of seven or eight.
A moron is someone with an intelligence quotient of 50 to 75 and a mental age of somewhere between eight and twelve years.
ความเห็น (0)
ไม่มีความเห็น