A word once used for a person with a thyroid deficiency disease, now considered offensive slang for a stupid or contemptible person.
From French 'crétin,' derived from Alpine French dialect, possibly from Latin 'Christianus' (Christian). The term originally meant someone with cretinism (a thyroid condition), later became a slur.
This word shows how medical conditions become insults—'cretin' once described a specific disease but became an all-purpose slur, then doctors had to invent 'cretinism' to describe the actual medical condition again!
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