   Goya's ''Bobalicón''.]]    An '''idiot''', '''dolt''', or '''dullard''' is a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. Archaically the word '''mome''' has also been used. The synonymous terms '''moron''', '''imbecile''', and '''cretin''' have all gained specialized meanings in modern times. An idiot is said to be '''idiotic''', and to suffer from '''idiocy'''. A '''dunce''' is an idiot who is specifically incapable of learning. An idiot differs from a fool (who is unwise) and an ignoramus (who is uneducated/an ignorant), neither of which refer to someone with low intelligence.  ==Etymology==   Idiot as a word derived from the Greek , ''idiōtēs'' (&quot;person lacking professional skill,&quot; &quot;a private citizen,&quot; &quot;individual&quot;), from , ''idios'' (&quot;private,&quot; &quot;one's own&quot;).Liddell-Scott-Jones ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', entries for [ ] and [ ]. In Latin the word ''idiota'' (&quot;ordinary person, layman&quot;) preceded the Late Latin meaning &quot;uneducated or ignorant person.&quot;''Words'', entry ''[ idiota]''. Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French ''idiote'' (&quot;uneducated or ignorant person&quot;). The related word ''idiocy'' dates to 1487 and may have been analogously modeled on the words prophetEtymonline.com, entry ''[ prophet]'' and prophecy.Etymonline.com, entry ''[ prophecy]''Etymonline.com, entry ''[ idiot]'' The word has cognates in many other languages.  In modern English usage, the terms &quot;idiot&quot; and &quot;idiocy&quot; describe an extreme folly or stupidity, and its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.  == Disability == In 19th and early 20th century medicine and psychology, an &quot;idiot&quot; was a person with a very severe mental retardation. In the early 1900s, Dr. Henry H. Goddard proposed a classification system for mental retardation based on the Binet-Simon concept of mental age. Individuals with the lowest mental age level (less than three years) were identified as ''idiots''; ''imbeciles'' had a mental age of three to 7 years, and ''morons'' had a mental age of seven to ten years.. IQ, or intelligence quotient, is determined by dividing a person's mental age, as determined by standardized tests, by their actual age. The term &quot;idiot&quot; was used to refer to people having an IQ below 30...  In current medical classification, these people are now said to have profound mental retardation.  == United States law == Until 2007, the California Penal Code Section 26 stated that &quot;Idiots&quot; were one of six types of people who are not capable of committing crimes. In 2007 the code was amended to read &quot;persons who are mentally incapacitated.&quot; In 2008, Iowa voters passed a measure replacing &quot;idiot, or insane person&quot; in the State's constitution with &quot;person adjudged mentally incompetent.&quot;   In several states, &quot;idiots&quot; do not have the right to vote:  * Kentucky Section 145[ Kentucky Section 145] * Mississippi Article 12, Section 241[ Mississippi Constitution of the State of Mississippi] See Article 12, Section 241 * New Mexico Article VII, section 1[ New Mexico Constitution, Article VII, section 1] * Ohio (Article V, Section 6)[ Ohio Constitution, Article V, Section 6]  The constitution of the state of Arkansas was amended in the general election of 2008 to, among other things, repeal a provision (Article 3, Section 5) which had until its repeal prohibited &quot;idiots or insane persons&quot; from voting.[       Arkansas Ballot Measures : An Amendment Concerning Voting, Qualifications of Voters and Election Officers, and the Time of Holding General Elections (Amendment 1) : For the November 4, 2008 General Election], [ votesmart.org].  == Cultural References == === Film === The 2006 film ''Idiocracy'' satirizes trends in contemporary consumer society. === Literature === A few authors have used &quot;idiot&quot; characters in novels, plays and poetry. Often these characters are used to highlight or indicate something else (allegory). Examples of such usage are William Faulkner's ''The Sound and the Fury'' and William Wordsworth's ''The Idiot Boy''. Idiot characters in literature are often confused with or subsumed within mad or lunatic characters. The most common imbrication between these two categories of mental impairment occurs in the polemic surrounding Edmund from William Shakespeare's ''King Lear''. In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel ''The Idiot'', the idiocy of the main character, Prince Lev Nikolaievich Myshkin, is attributed more to his honesty, trustfulness, kindness, and humility, than to a lack of intellectual ability. Nietzsche claimed, in his ''The Antichrist'', that Jesus was an idiot. This resulted from his description of Jesus as having an aversion toward the material world. (§ 29, partially quoted here, contains three words that were suppressed by Nietzsche's sister when she published The Antichrist in 1895. The words are: &quot;das Wort Idiot&quot;, translated here as &quot;the word idiot&quot;. They were not made public until 1931, by Josef Hofmiller. H.L. Mencken's 1920 translation does not contain these words.) === Music ===  The title song of the Green Day 2004 Album, ''American Idiot'' debuted and stayed at number one on Canadian charts for 5 weeks.  