English
imbecile
Imbecile comes from Latin imbēcillus ‘weak, feeble’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimbēcillus‘weak, feeble’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600imbécile
- Englishearliest quotation 1899imbecile
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimbēcillus‘weak, feeble’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600imbécile
- Englishearliest quotation 1899imbecile
Earliest quotation: 1899, Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness: “And then that imbecile crowd down on the deck…”
The story
Borrowed from Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus (‘weak, feeble’), literally “without a staff”.
Linked words
through Latin baculum ‘staff, walking stick’
Today it means
noun A person with limited mental capacity who can perform tasks and think only like a young child, in medical circles meaning a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal five- to seven-year-old child.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin imbēcillus / imbecile