What's In A Name?

I need some stress relief. I have had way to much to do lately. For some reason, coming here and doing a post takes my mind off of the things I should be doing. I am not sure if that is good or not. Probably not, since it is taking me away from the things I should be doing. Procrastination is one of my strong points......I need to talk about that another day.

Anyway, I was reading over my posts, and I saw that I use the word 'moron' a lot. That is not particularly nice. Although, if the shoe fits..........Well, I decided that I should be nicer; but then I got to thinking about the word moron. If my memory is correct, words like moron, idiot,and imbecile were once psychiatric terms that described an IQ level or a level of mental disability. If you were a moron, you were mildly disabled, if you were an imbecile, you took it up a notch, and if you were an idiot, you were profoundly disabled. So, really if I call you a moron, I am only saying you are mildly stupid! It's not like I am calling you an idiot! If you look these words up in the dictionary, it says they don't use them clinically anymore because they are considered an insult these days.

So, if it was around 1900 and I called you a moron it would be a medical term. Can you just imagine?..................."Mr. Jones, I have to advise you that after our testing, we have found that you are a moron, which is not as bad as an imbecile and far better than an idiot! So cheer up and have a wonderful day!"

Did you know that "numbskull" is in the dictionary? You can spell it "numbskull" or "numskull". I would have to say that "numbskull" is more appropriate. You know, indicating that your head is numb and all. The definition is.....n. a stupid person. Couldn't that also be an adjective? Let's see, person place or thing as a noun....Descriptor as an adjective..."He is a numbskull!" I am trying to bring up my sentence diagramming skills from elementary school.....You know, they don't do that any more. I always liked diagramming sentences, it was fun.

Going on with the name thing, if I were stupid, and I looked it up in the dictionary to find out what it meant, would I understand it? And did you know that 'stupidness' is a word??!! It is right in the dictionary and is a noun. So now I can say "His stupidness was unbelievable!" and be right!

But I digress. The whole point was I am going to try to be nicer. I don't ever call people names to their face because it isn't nice. So I will try not to do it in my mind or on my posts....How does 'dumb' strike you?