Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person afflicted with cretinism.
- n. Slang An idiot.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of a numerous class of deformed idiots found in certain valleys of the Alps and elsewhere; one afflicted with cretinism.
Wiktionary
- n. pathology A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism.
- n. pejorative An idiot.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One afflicted with cretinism.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person of subnormal intelligence
Etymologies
- From French crétin (dialectal form of chrétien), from Vulgar Latin christianus, from Latin Christianus, in the lost sense of 'unfortunate person'. (Wiktionary)
- French crétin, from French dialectal, deformed and mentally retarded person found in certain Alpine valleys, from Vulgar Latin *christiānus, Christian, human being, poor fellow, from Latin Chrīstiānus, Christian; see Christian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term cretin describes a person so affected, but, like such words as spastic, idiot, and lunatic, also is a word of abuse.”
“No. What makes Thomas a cretin is that he abdicates his JOB to decide whether punishments are cruel and unusual.”
“Dilan Esper: What makes Thomas a cretin is that he abdicates his JOB to decide whether punishments are cruel and unusual.”
“Surely this cretin is not Fucking With the Assistant!”
“Oh I am so glad you went off on a tangent and mentioned Eddie Murphy's annoying roles - reading about the irritating male friend that you called a cretin, kindly allow me to put Eddieee in that category.”
“I just learned the history of the word cretin today.”
“The word cretin is derived from the Latin creatura.”
“I've heard him called a cretin, "a retard", an idiot.”
“My reproductive rights are so important to me that I’m looking into moving to Canada if this (insert expletive here) low life cretin is actually elected to the Supreme Court.”
“Anyway, Friday evening I heard two of them — — one male, one female — — trying to figure out what the word cretin means.”
"Pay my respects to grace and virtue. Send my condolences to good."
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cretin’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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funny & derogatory
WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
funny derogatory names, quotes, phrases.
( open list, randomness, ad hom, ad hominem )
also see:
buttfucking quitter, dirty sanchez, donkey punch, falcon punch, assbadger, unicorn turd, assclown, fudgenut, quackery, friggin homo, buttmuncher, jackwagon and 274 more... -
unkind words
unkind words or those refering them.
twit, gibe, blockhead, bonehead, cretin, dullard, imbecile, simpleton, clod, dunce, simp, ignoramus and 39 more...
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Insult Words
A rich collection of all the ways you can insult someone's intelligence.
idiot, cretin, moron, dimwit, nincompoop, meathead, addlepate, dingbat, dumbbell, dunce, fool, halfwit and 31 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
niglets, aw, flakey, shiznit, thatch, sexy, bummers, hotty, eargasms, ratchetry, weird, fab and 457 more... -
Things from my memory
nigger baby, mexican jumping bean, puddle jumper, mood ring, pet rock, cat scratch fever, taxman, hippie, vaseline, argyrol, mercurchrome, methiolade and 655 more...
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Lillyjames's Words
uncategorized words that I enjoy
replete, unabashed, dauntless, ubiquitous, fanged, blush, flush, murmur, mercurial, dishevelled, decrepit, raven and 146 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
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Brinstar's Words
cobalt, obfuscate, archon, wii, sniper, arcane, celerity, visage, auspicious, ether, epidemic, lich and 138 more...
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imogen's Words
coagitate, cloche, harum-scarum, foxglove, cryptolect, cant, roux, angora, duff, ulysse, schadenfreude, pepperpot and 315 more...
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kirstenio's Words
lascivious, transcendant, phantasmagoria, salacious, beatitude, solitude, pseudo, pretentious, inanity, sublimation, clobber, obscurity and 186 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cretin.
sofrohna cretin...looking up words for a great book called Freak the Mighty...this word comes up ALOT in this book. :1 Feb 17, 2010
john “Indeed, the problem used to be widespread in the Alps. The word ‘cretin’ is believed to come from a mountain dialect of French, apparently because iodine deficiency in the Alps produced so many cretins. The problem ended when food was brought in from elsewhere and salt was iodized.�?
The New York Times, Raising the World’s I.Q. , by Nicholas D. Kristof, December 4, 2008 Dec 4, 2008
arby NOUN: Slang. One deficient in judgment and good sense: ass, fool, idiot,imbecile, jackass, mooncalf, moron, nincompoop, ninny, nitwit, simple, simpleton, softhead, tomfool. Informal: dope, gander, goose. Slang: ding-dong, dip, goof, jerk, nerd, schmo, schmuck, turkey. Sep 15, 2007
arby 1779, from Fr. Alpine dialect crestin, "a dwarfed and deformed idiot," from V.L. christianus "a Christian," a generic term for "anyone," but often with a sense of "poor fellow."
Sep 15, 2007