English Explanatory Dictionary

cretin

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism.
  2. An idiot.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɹɛtɪn/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cretin.wav /ˈkɹiːtɪn/ En-us-cretin.oga

Word forms

cretin cretins

Etymology

From French crétin (“cretin, idiot”), likely from crestin, an Alpine dialectal form of chrétien, from Latin christiānus in the lost sense of “anyone in Christendom”, often with a sense of “poor fellow”. Doublet of Christian.

Derived words

cretinic cretinism cretinize cretinoid cretinous
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on C Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary