How bad a word is cretin?

[TroublesomeLuck]

Our headteacher has recently done an interview for the school magazine where he has called Gavin Williamson "a cretin". Now I'm no fan of Gavin's. But am I right in thinking that's a terrible word for someone to be using?

I like cretin and imbecile too but I don't use them much - not from any moral objection but because they don't usually spring to mind.

Like most people I use stupid and idiot and variations of them all the time. Those are from the same list of words used to grade learning difficulties but people don't complain about them so much, probably because they use them without knowing where they come from and when they do find out they say it doesn't matter or it's too difficult to change which I suppose it might be.

I wouldn't use retard or any form of spastic. I'm shocked when Americans do but accept there are things British people do and say that they think are terrible.

It's not too difficult for me to use Down's Syndrome. I wouldn't use the other word though it was commonly used in my childhood and mostly as a descriptor rather than an insult. I understand it when people much younger than me think "monging out" simply means being in a state of complete relaxation because they haven't heard the word used in earlier contexts.

Simpleton is another one that no one's mentioned. It has a nice soft way of slipping off the tongue.

As others have said it is a disabilist word - I'm surprised a headteacher used this.

Fifty years ago when I started as a paediatric nursing student our textbooks had photos of 'cretinous' babies

No one would use 'mong' these days would they?

Wisdom has been chasing you, but you have always been faster.

widom has been chasing you, but you have always been faster
Now I like that, and by the time you've said it, and by the the dim witted person has worked it out, you'll be far enough away not to get punched!

Less subtle than above:
Nine pence short of a shilling
A sandwich short of a picnic
A brain more holy than a Swiss cheese
Not the brightest bulb in the pack
Fool
Dim
Slow witted
Frogspawn brain (although that might be insulting to frogs)

Disablist language.
Cretinism is a congenital disorder nowadays detected by heel prick tests so treatments can be given to prevent symptoms.

People do still use mong in the sense of monging out - usually people too young to have heard mongol as a term for someone with Down’s syndrome. They’re generally horrified when I explain.

I didn't know the origin of the word, although I've never used it, I've heard it used. I think I'd probably assume the HT didn't know and it would be appropriate to tell him.

I think he's been very restrained...

Of course it is extremely offensive - just try telling anyone diagnosed with cretinism that hardly anyone understand their condition, so its ok to use it as an insult.

I have taught whole families with this disorder, and typically it is the first child who suffers, because once the reason that lack of brain development has been diagnosed, then younger siblings can be treated before brain damage occurs

You LIKE using the word Cretin!

I can only assume you are talking from a place of gross ignorance

Please please please dont use this word

Cretin was the very very outdated word for an individual with profound intellectual disability, and a classic facial appearance, due to untreated congenital hypothyroidism. It is disablist, and no decent person should use it.

I agree, please educate this ignorant man! He may well have children in his school diagnosed with cretinism, and if they are being treated, he won't know, because with the right treatment they will develop the same as everybody else.

Its only untreated children with cretinism that don't have normal brain development

Cretinism describes the condition caused by not treating hypothyroidism, not hypothyroidism itself.

It's not all that outdated. DH isn't the type to take offence at much but he won't leave 'cretin' unchallenged. He had an uncle who had congenital hypothyroidism- detected relatively young and treated at Great Ormond Street with thyroxine extracted from calves thymus glands, so his impairments were mild.

I think it had a definition in terms of a very low IQ many years ago

@Nimbostratus100 I like the word and also imbecile but as I said I don't often use them as insults because they don't spring to mind rather than having any moral objection to them.

I'm not ignorant, grossly or otherwise.

What do you think of the rest of my post? There are many words I wouldn't use but do not feel compelled to challenge people or affect outrage every time they use them.

Do you use the words stupid and idiot or variants such as stupidity, idiocy or idiotic? As I explained they are from the same list of terms to describe types of what we now call learning difficulties.

I do but perhaps you don't. Do pull you people up on them and make complaints if you read them in newspapers or hear them in films? If so, your life must be exhausting but probably gives you a warm glow.

@Mammyloveswine I thought that too

Hardly anyone understands that though, or if they do it’s a intellectual understanding of a historical use of a word that they, nor anyone they know, has actually used to refer to any disabled person.

Years ago DH was on a ward round when a professor emeritus (so well past retirement age) used the word cretin to describe a patient.

I use that one too. But not all the time. Only for people I think it suits.