cretinism

[ kreet-n-iz-uhmor, especially British, kret- ]

noun

, Pathology.

1. (no longer in technical use) a congenital disease due to absence or deficiency of normal thyroid secretion, characterized by physical deformity, dwarfism, and intellectual disability, and often by goiter: This condition is now diagnosed as congenital hypothyroidism or congenital iodine deficiency.

cretinism

/ ˈkrɛtɪˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. old-fashioned.
   a condition arising from a deficiency of thyroid hormone, present from birth, characterized by dwarfism and mental retardation See also myxoedema

Word History and Origins

Origin of cretinism¹

First recorded in 1795–1800; from French crétinisme; cretin, -ism

Example Sentences

The late Gore Vidal explained that one of his ambitions as a historian and novelist was to determine “when the great cretinism began in the United States…when people got really dumb.”

From Salon

While there is plenty of room to debate the origin, it is beyond dispute that we’re living in peak cretinism.

From Salon

Dmitry Polonsky, deputy chairman of the Council of Crimean Ministers—a group the Kremlin forcibly overtook in 2014—called Google’s digital updates “topographical cretinism.”

From Slate

No doubt it was pretty funny, this new level of cretinism reached by this known moron whose unearned privileges allowed him to fail upwards right into the White House.

From Salon

The “superstructure” has triumphed over the “base”, “parliamentary cretinism” over the “dictatorship of the proletariat”.

From Economist

Related Words

• insanity
• lunacy
• madness