cretin

The story

1. Latin · derived fromchristiānus
2. French · borrowed fromcrétin“cretin, idiot”
3. English todaycretin

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.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 1779 A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism.