An Idiot

An Idiot

An idiot, dolt, or dullard is a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. Archaically the word mome has also been used. The synonymous terms moron, imbecile, and cretin have all gained specialized meanings in modern times. An idiot is said to be idiotic, and to suffer from idiocy. A dunce is an idiot who is specifically incapable of learning. An idiot differs from a fool (who is unwise) and an ignoramus (who is uneducated/an ignorant), neither of which refer to someone with low intelligence.
Etymology
Idiot as a word derived from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs ("person lacking professional skill," "a private citizen," "individual"), from ἴδιος, idios ("private," "one's own").  In Latin the word idiota ("ordinary person, layman") preceded the Late Latin meaning "uneducated or ignorant person."  Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person"). The related word idiocy dates to 1487 and may have been analogously modeled on the words prophet  and prophecy.   The word has cognates in many other languages.
In modern English usage, the terms "idiot" and "idiocy" describe an extreme folly or stupidity, and its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.  
Disability
In 19th and early 20th century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very severe mental retardation. In the early 1900s, Dr. Henry H. Goddard proposed a classification system for mental retardation based on the Binet-Simon concept of mental age. Individuals with the lowest mental age level (less than three years) were identified as idiots; imbeciles had a mental age of three to 7 years, and morons had a mental age of seven to ten years.  IQ, or intelligence quotient, is determined by dividing a person's mental age, as determined by standardized tests, by their actual age. The term "idiot" was used to refer to people having an IQ below 30.  
In current medical classification, these people are now said to have profound mental retardation.  
United States law
Until 2007, the California Penal Code Section 26 stated that "Idiots" were one of six types of people who are not capable of committing crimes. In 2007 the code was amended to read "persons who are mentally incapacitated."  In 2008, Iowa voters passed a measure replacing "idiot, or insane person" in the State's constitution with "person adjudged mentally incompetent."

Prince Lyov Nikolayevich Myshkin, a fair-haired young man in his late twenties and a descendant of one of the oldest Russian lines of nobility, arrives in StPetersburg on a November morningHe has

spent the last four years in a Swiss clinic for treatment of his "idiocy" and epilepsy
Myshkin's only relation in StPetersburg is the very distant Lizaveta Prokofyevna YepanchinMadame Yepanchin is the wife of General Yepanchin, a wealthy and respected man in his late fiftiesThe

prince makes the acquaintance of the Yepanchins, who have three daughters, Alexandra, Adelaida, and Aglaya, the last being the youngest and the most beautiful
General Yepanchin has an ambitious and rather vain assistant by the name of Gavril Ardalyonovich Ivolgin (nicknamed Ganya) whom Myshkin also meets during his visit to the householdGanya, though he

is actually in love with Aglaya, is in the midst of trying to marry Anastassya Filippovna Barashkov, an extraordinarily beautiful "fatal woman" who was once the mistress of the aristocrat

TotskyTotsky has promised Ganya 75,000 rubles if he marries the "fallen" Nastassya FilippovnaAs Myshkin is so innocent and naïve, Ganya openly discusses the subject of the proposed marriage in

front of the prince
The prince rents a room in the Ivolgin apartment, also occupied by Ganya, his sister, Varvara Ardalyonovna (Varya); his mother, Nina Alexandrovna; teenage brother, Nikolai (Kolya); his father,

General Ivolgin; and another lodger by the name of Ferdyshchenko
Nastassya Filippovna arrives and begins to insult Ganya's family, which has refused to accept her as a possible wife for GanyaMyshkin, however, stops her, putting her behavior to shameSuddenly a

rowdy crowd of drunks and rogues arrives, headed by Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin, a dark-haired twenty-seven-year-old who is passionately in love with Nastassya FilippovnaRogozhin promises to bring

100,000 rubles to Nastassya Filippovna's birthday party scheduled for that evening at which she is to announce whom she shall marry
Among the guests at the party are Totsky, General Yepanchin, Ganya, Ferdyshchenko, Ptitsyn—a usurer friend of Ganya's who is a suitor to Varya Ivolgin—and a few othersWith the help of Kolya, Prince

Myshkin arrives, uninvitedFollowing the prince's advice, Nastassya Filippovna refuses Ganya's proposalRogozhin arrives with the promised 100,000 rubles, but suddenly Myshkin himself offers to marry

Nastassya Filippovna, announcing that he has recently learned he has a large inheritanceThough shocked at such a generous offer by an honest and generous heart, Nastassya Filippovna only deems

herself worthy of being with Rogozhin, so she leaves the party with Rogozhin and his gang
Prince Myshkin spends the next six months following Nastassya Filippovna as she runs from Rogozhin to the prince and backMyshkin's inheritance turns out to be smaller than expected, and it shrinks

further as he satisfies the claims of creditors and alleged relatives, many of which are fraudulentFinally, the Prince returns to StPetersburg and visits Rogozhin's house, which is a dark and

dreary placeThey discuss religion and exchange crosses
However, later that day, Rogozhin, motivated by jealousy, attempts to stab Myshkin in the hall of the prince's hotel, but the prince is saved when he has a sudden epileptic fitSeveral days later,

Myshkin leaves for Pavlovsk, a nearby town popular for summer residence among StPetersburg nobilityThe prince rents several rooms from Lebedev, a rogue functionaryMost of the novel's characters—the

Yepanchins, the Ivolgins, Varya and her husband Ptitsyn, and Nastassya Filippovna—spend the summer in Pavlovsk as well
Burdovsky, a young man who claims himself to be the son of Myshkin's late benefactor, Pavlishchev, comes to the prince and demands money from him as a "just" reimbursement for Pavlishchev's support

of the PrinceBurdovsky is supported by a group of insolent young men who include the consumptive seventeen-year old Hippolite Terentyev, a friend of Kolya IvolginAlthough Burdovsky's claim is

obviously fraudulent—he is not Pavlishchev's son at all—Myshkin is ready and willing to help Burdovsky financially