idio- +
(Greek: peculiar, one's own, personal, private; of or pertaining to one's self, distinct, separate, alone)
idiopt
Someone who has some peculiarity of vision.
idiorepulsive
Self repelling.
idioretinial
Peculiar to the retina.
idiorganic
Peculiar to a particular organ.
idiorrhenic
Peculiar to the male sex.
idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic
1. A way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is peculiar to an individual or group, especially an odd or unusual one.
2. An unusual or exaggerated reaction to a drug or food that is not caused by an allergy.
3. In pharmacology, an abnormal reaction to a drug, sometimes specified as genetically determined.
4. The mental constitution peculiar to a person or class of persons; individual bent of mind or inclination; a view or feeling, a liking or aversion, peculiar to a single person, race, or nation.
5. A mode of expression peculiar to an author.
idiosynnosic
Peculiar to a particular disease.
idiot
1. An offensive term that deliberately insults someone else's intelligence.
2. An offensive term in a now disused classification system for someone with an IQ of about 25 or under and a mental age of less than three years.
The Greek adjective idios means “one’s own” or “private”. The derivative noun idiotes means "private person". A Greek idiotes was simply a person who was not in the public eye, who held no public office.
From this sense came the idea of "a common man", and later "an ignorant person"; a natural extension, because the common people of Greece were not, in general, particularly well educated.
The word was borrowed from Greek into Latin as idiota, then into French as idiote, which in turn became a loanword in English in the thirteenth century. The milder meaning of idiot, "an ignorant person", is now considered obsolete.
To summarize: The word idiot came from Greek, idiotes, through Latin idiota, and then middle French, idiote;, "a person in a private station, a person without professional knowledge, an ignorant person, a common man", from idios, "one’s own, private, peculiar".
—Compiled from information found in
Webster’s Word Histories, Springfield, Massachusetts:
Merriam-Webster Inc., Publishers, 1989.
idiot board
A placard, projector, or continuous roll of paper that prompts a television performer with lines to be spoken.
idiot box
Slang for a television or a television set.
idiot card
Slang for a TV idiot board.
idiothelic
Peculiar to the female sex.
idiotic
An offensive term that deliberately insults someone else’s behavior.
idioticon
A dictionary of a particular dialect.
idiotim
1. The condition of an idiot, especially an extreme degree of mental deficiency, usually a mental age of less than three or four years; idiocy.
2. Idiotic conduct or action, especially in a so-called normal person.
Cross references of word families related to: "individual, personal":
pecu-;
privat-, priv-.
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