moron

Calling someone a moron is all in good fun, right? Not so much. While moron can sound like a simple schoolyard taunt, the term was originally used by psychologists to classify someone as having mild intellectual disabilities. What’s more, prominent psychologists, notably Henry H. Goddard, who used the label moron promoted eugenics.

Moron is no longer in use as a medical term, and it’s offensive and ableist to equate someone you think is acting foolish to a person with a disability.

If knowing the history of moron has got you reflecting on your word choices, this slideshow, “These Common Words Have Offensive Histories,” discusses many other words whose place in your vocab you may want to reconsider. 

Like moron, the words idiot, imbecile, and feeble-minded were also once used in psychology to label people with intellectual disabilities or mental deficiencies.

Now, we’re not condoning any name-calling, but we’re also not naive—we know it happens! But, we can at least alert to the fact there are plenty of alternatives to moron that don’t come with so much painful baggage:

• blockhead
• boob
• buffoon
• ignoramus
• clown
• jester
• nitwit
• stooge

For more synonyms, find fool on Thesaurus.com.