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] 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?]