idiot savant
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See also: idiot-savant
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From French idiot savant, literally ‘wise idiot’.
Noun[edit]
idiot savant (plural idiots savants or idiot savants)
- (possibly derogatory) A person who exhibits an extraordinary ability in one subject (often mathematics) whilst being intellectually disabled in many other domains.
- 2014 May 11, Ivan Hewett, “Piano Man: a Life of John Ogdon by Charles Beauclerk, review: A new biography of the great British pianist whose own genius destroyed him [print version: A colossus off-key, 10 May 2014, p. R27]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)[1]:
- The temptation is to regard him [John Ogdon] as an idiot savant, a big talent bottled inside a recalcitrant body and accompanied by a personality that seems not just unremarkable, but almost entirely blank.
Usage notes[edit]
- The more current term is savant.
Synonyms[edit]
- autistic savant
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *seh₁p-
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English multiword terms
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with quotations
- English oxymorons
- en:People
- en:Stock characters