The term ''imbecile'' was once used by

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

s to denote a category of people with moderate to severe

intellectual disability Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability (in the United Kingdom), and formerly mental retardation (in the United States), Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010).Archive is a generalized neurodevelopmental ...

, as well as a type of criminal.Fernald, Walter E. (1912). ''The imbecile with criminal instincts.'' Fourth edition. Boston: Ellis. .Duncan, P. Martin; Millard, William (1866). ''A manual for the classification, training, and education of the feeble-minded, imbecile, and idiotic.'' Longmans, Green, and Co. The word arises from the Latin word ''imbecillus'', meaning weak, or weak-minded. It originally referred to people of the second order in a former and discarded classification of intellectual disability, with a

mental age Mental age is a concept related to intelligence. It looks at how a specific individual, at a specific age, performs intellectually, compared to average intellectual performance for that individual's actual chronological age (i.e. time elapsed sin ...

of three to seven years and an IQ of 25–50, above "

idiot An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. "Idiot" was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot ...

" (IQ below 25) and below " moron" (IQ of 51–70).Sternberg, Robert J. (2000). ''Handbook of Intelligence.''

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. . In the obsolete medical classification (

ICD-9 The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a globally used medical classification that is used in epidemiology, health management and clinical diagnosis. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the direc ...

, 1977), these people were said to have "moderate

mental retardation Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability (in the United Kingdom), and formerly mental retardation (in the United States), Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010).Archive is a generalized neurodevelopmental ...

" or "moderate mental subnormality" with IQ of 35–49, as they are usually capable of some degree of communication, guarding themselves against danger and performing simple mechanical tasks under supervision. The meaning was further refined into mental and moral imbecility.Kerlin, Isaac N. (1889). "Moral imbecility". ''Proceedings of the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Persons'', pp. 15–18.Fernald, Walter E. (1 April 1909)
"The imbecile with criminal instincts"
''

American Journal of Psychiatry ''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...

''. 65(4):731–749. The concepts of "moral insanity", "

moral idiocy Moral idiocy is an inability to distinguish between right and wrong, or to understand how Morality, moral values apply to one's own life and the lives of others. The term is sometimes used to describe Amorality, amoral institutional behavior, wit ...

", and "moral imbecility" led to the emerging field of

eugenic Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the ferti ...

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

, which held that crime can be reduced by preventing "

feeble-minded The term feeble-minded was used from the late 19th century in Europe, the United States, and Australasia for disorders later referred to as illnesses, deficiencies of the mind, and disabilities. At the time, ''mental deficiency'' encompassed a ...

" people from reproducing.Rafter, Nicole Hahn (1998). ''Creating Born Criminals''. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press. . Tredgold, A. F. (1921). "Moral Imbecility". '' Proc R Soc Med'', 1921; 14(Sect Psych): 13–22. "Imbecile" as a concrete classification was popularized by psychologist

Henry H. Goddard Henry Herbert Goddard (August 14, 1866 – June 18, 1957) was an American psychologist, eugenicist, and segregationist during the early 20th century. He is known especially for his 1912 work '' The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Fe ...

Goddard, Henry Herbert (1915).
The Criminal Imbecile; an Analysis of Three Remarkable Murder Cases
'. New York: The Macmillan Company. and was used in 1927 by

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

Justice

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Cou ...

in his ruling in the forced-sterilization case ''

Buck v. Bell ''Buck v. Bell'', 274 U.S. 200 (1927), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., in which the Court ruled that a state statute permitting compulsory sterilization of the unfit, inc ...

'', 274 U.S. 200 (1927).Lombardo, Paul A. (2008). ''Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell''. JHU Press, . The concept is closely associated with

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

, and

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

. However, the term ''imbecile'' quickly passed into vernacular usage as a derogatory term. It fell out of professional use in the 20th century in favor of ''mental retardation''.Kaplan, Robert M.; Saccuzzo, Dennis P. (2008). ''Psychological Testing: Principles, Applications, and Issues''. Cengage Learning. . Phrases such as "mental retardation", "mentally retarded", and " retarded" are also subject to the

euphemism treadmill A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

: initially used in a medical manner, they gradually took on derogatory

connotation A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive or ...

. This had occurred with the earlier synonyms (for example, ''moron'', ''imbecile'', ''cretin'', and ''idiot'', formerly used as scientific terms in the early 20th century). Professionals searched for connotatively neutral replacements. In the United States, "

Rosa's Law Rosa's Law is a United States law which replaced several instances of "mental retardation" in law with "intellectual disability". The bill was introduced as S.2781 in the United States Senate on November 17, 2009, by Barbara Mikulski ( D- MD). It ...

" changed references in many federal statutes to "mental retardation" to refer instead to "intellectual disability".Sweet, Lynn (October 5, 2010).
Obama signs 'Rosa's Law;' 'mental retardation' out, 'intellectual disability' in
(). ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

''.

References

{{Reflist Obsolete terms for mental disorders Pejorative terms for people with disabilities Intellectual disability Obsolete medical terms Slurs related to low intelligence