Idiotic

How to spell idiotic

7 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce idiotic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does idiotic mean?

1. adjectiveExtremely foolish or senseless.

Idiotic in a sentence

• Leaving the front door wide open all weekend was an idiotic thing to do.

• The manager scrapped the idiotic rule that banned coffee at desks.

Where does idiotic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek idiotes, which originally meant a private citizen or layman, someone who held no public office and took no part in the affairs of the state. It was built on idios, meaning 'one's own' or 'private', and so it described a person concerned only with their own private matters rather than public ones. Over time the Greeks used it dismissively for an unskilled or ignorant person, and that scornful flavour carried into Latin as idiota and then into Old French. English took the noun 'idiot' in the late 1300s, and the adjective 'idiotic' followed by the 1700s, formed with the familiar Latin and Greek suffix -ic meaning 'of the nature of'. The same idios root survives in the much harder word 'idiosyncrasy', which literally means a private mixing or blend particular to one person.

How the word is built

• idiot- (from Greek idiotes: a private person, layman)
• -ic (adjective suffix: of the nature of)