Etymology

idiot savant

Today it means: A person who exhibits an extraordinary ability in one subject (often mathematics) while being intellectually disabled in many other domains. Full definition →

French idiot savant
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromidiot savant
  2. English todayidiot savant

From French idiot savant, literally ‘wise idiot’.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.