cretin

See also: crétin

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɛtɪn/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹiːtən/, /ˈkɹɛtən/, /ˈkɹiːtɪn/, /ˈkɹɛtɪn/
• Homophone: Cretan (one pronunciation)

Noun

cretin (plural cretins)

1. (pathology) A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism. [from 1779]
2. (by extension, derogatory) An idiot.
   • 1969, Irving Wallace, The Seven Minutes:

     When I challenged the symbolism, tried to make the professor consider the book as a piece of realism, he regarded me as if I were an absolute cretin. He got very supercilious and condescending […]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:idiot

Derived terms

Derived terms

• cretinism
• cretinize

• cretinoid
• cretinous

Translations

person who fails to develop due to congenital hypothyroidism

• Czech: kretén (cs) m
• Dutch: cretin (nl) m
• Finnish: kretiini (fi)
• French: crétin (fr) m
• German: Kretin (de) m
• Greek: κρετίνος (el) m (kretínos)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: kretén (hu)
• Ido: kretino (io)
• Polish: kretyn (pl) m
• Romanian: cretin (ro) m, cretină (ro) f
• Russian: крети́н (ru) m (kretín)
• Serbo-Croatian: kreten (sh) m, кретен m

pejorative: an idiot

• Catalan: cretí m
• French: crétin (fr) m
• German: Kretin (de) m
• Greek: κρετίνος (el) m (kretínos), ηλίθιος (el) m (ilíthios)
• Hungarian: kretén (hu)
• Ido: kretinacho
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: cretino (it) m
• Polish: kretyn (pl) m
• Portuguese: cretino (pt)
• Russian: крети́н (ru) m (kretín)
• Serbo-Croatian: kreten (sh) m
• Slovak: kritin pl
• Spanish: cretino (es) m, cretina (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ido: ^{(please verify)} kretino (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Further reading

• Cretinism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Template:projectlink

Anagrams

• centri-, cinter, citren, crinet