英语词汇cretin的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

cretin. Our pejorative cretin, for “an idiot,” began as a kindly word. In the Middle Ages many deformed people with a low mentality lived in the Alpine regions, their condition resulting from a thyroid condition now known as myxedema, which was possibly caused by a deficiency of iodine in their drinking wa- ter. These unfortunates were called Chrétiens, “Christians,” by the Swiss because the word distinguished human beings like these people from brutes and they believed these childlike in- nocents were incapable of actual sin. But the kindly word went into French as cretin, meaning “idiot,” and retained the same meaning when it passed into English.

词汇	cretin
词源	cretin. Our pejorative cretin, for “an idiot,” began as a kindly word. In the Middle Ages many deformed people with a low mentality lived in the Alpine regions, their condition resulting from a thyroid condition now known as myxedema, which was possibly caused by a deficiency of iodine in their drinking wa- ter. These unfortunates were called Chrétiens, “Christians,” by the Swiss because the word distinguished human beings like these people from brutes and they believed these childlike in- nocents were incapable of actual sin. But the kindly word went into French as cretin, meaning “idiot,” and retained the same meaning when it passed into English.
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