Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK A person widely known in their community for their stupidity and ignorant behaviour.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The term first appears in the preface to George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara, which opened in 1907. Shaw discusses how some people have treated madness or idiocy as a source of humor, remarking that "I myself have had a village idiot exhibited to me as something irresistibly funny."

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