Moron

Moron is an old term to describe a person with an intellectual disability.[1] The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement.[2]

Moron is an old term to describe a person with an intellectual disability.[1] The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement.[2] The term became more widespread, and people started using it as an insult. It is similar to the words imbecile and idiot.[3]

History

In 1910, psychologist Henry H. Goddard first used the word. [4] He based it on the Ancient Greek word μωρός (moros), which meant "dull".[5] He used it for adults who had a mental age of a 7- 10 year old on the Binet scale.[6] It was once applied to people with an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 51–70. This meant it was slighlty better than "imbecile" (IQ of 26–50) and much better than "idiot" (IQ of 0–25). During some time, psychologists used the word moron, along with others including "idiotic", "imbecilic", "stupid", and "feeble-minded" to classify people, but they no longer do.[7]

Other information

Psychologists stopped using the term altogether.[when?]

References

  1. ↑ Rafter, Nicole Hahn (1998). Creating Born Criminals. University of Illinois Press, ISBN 978-0-252-06741-9
  2. ↑ Black, Edwin (2004). War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race. Thunder's Mouth Press, ISBN 978-1-56858-321-1
  3. ↑ "The Clinical History of 'Moron,' 'Idiot,' and 'Imbecile'". merriam-webster.com. 30 March 2026.
  4. ↑ Trent, James W. Jr. (2017). Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States. Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199396184
  5. ↑ μωρός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  6. ↑ Zaretsky, Herbert H.; Richter, Edwin F.; Eisenberg, Myron G. (2005), Medical aspects of disability: a handbook for the rehabilitation professional (third edition, illustrated ed.), Springer Publishing Company, p. 346, ISBN 978-0-8261-7973-9.
  7. ↑ Zenderland, Leila (2001). Measuring Minds: Henry Herbert Goddard and the Origins of American Intelligence Testing. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-00363-6

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