Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person afflicted with cretinism.
- noun Offensive A person considered to be foolish or unintelligent.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One of a numerous class of deformed idiots found in certain valleys of the Alps and elsewhere; one afflicted with cretinism.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One afflicted with cretinism.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun pathology A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a
congenital hypothyroidism . - noun pejorative An
idiot .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person of subnormal intelligence
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term cretin describes a person so affected, but, like such words as spastic, idiot, and lunatic, also is a word of abuse.
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Surely this cretin is not Fucking With the Assistant!
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Surely this cretin is not Fucking With the Assistant!
Archive 2010-02-01 2010
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No. What makes Thomas a cretin is that he abdicates his JOB to decide whether punishments are cruel and unusual.
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Dilan Esper: What makes Thomas a cretin is that he abdicates his JOB to decide whether punishments are cruel and unusual.
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I just learned the history of the word cretin today.
CRETINS OF WAR News from Mad Plato 2007
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I just learned the history of the word cretin today.
Archive 2007-08-01 News from Mad Plato 2007
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Oh I am so glad you went off on a tangent and mentioned Eddie Murphy's annoying roles - reading about the irritating male friend that you called a cretin, kindly allow me to put Eddieee in that category.
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The word cretin is derived from the Latin creatura.
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I've heard him called a cretin, "a retard", an idiot.
Laurie Kendrick 2008
arby commented on the word cretin
1779, from Fr. Alpine dialect crestin, "a dwarfed and deformed idiot," from V.L. christianus "a Christian," a generic term for "anyone," but often with a sense of "poor fellow."
September 15, 2007
arby commented on the word cretin
NOUN: Slang. One deficient in judgment and good sense: ass, fool, idiot,imbecile, jackass, mooncalf, moron, nincompoop, ninny, nitwit, simple, simpleton, softhead, tomfool. Informal: dope, gander, goose. Slang: ding-dong, dip, goof, jerk, nerd, schmo, schmuck, turkey.
September 15, 2007
john commented on the word cretin
“Indeed, the problem used to be widespread in the Alps. The word ‘cretin’ is believed to come from a mountain dialect of French, apparently because iodine deficiency in the Alps produced so many cretins. The problem ended when food was brought in from elsewhere and salt was iodized.�?
The New York Times, Raising the World’s I.Q. , by Nicholas D. Kristof, December 4, 2008
December 4, 2008
sofrohna commented on the word cretin
cretin...looking up words for a great book called Freak the Mighty...this word comes up ALOT in this book. :1
February 17, 2010