Imbecile was a medical category of
people with moderate to severe
intellectual disability, as well as a
type of criminal. The term arises from
the Latin word imbecillus, meaning weak,
or weak-minded. It included people with
an IQ of 26–50, between "moron" and
"idiot".
The meaning was further refined into
mental and moral imbecility. The
concepts of "moral insanity", "moral
idiocy"," and "moral imbecility", led to
the emerging field of eugenic
criminology, which held that crime can
be reduced by preventing "feeble-minded"
people from reproducing.
"Imbecile" as a concrete classification
was popularized by psychologist Henry H.
Goddard and was used in 1927 by United
States Supreme Court Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Jr. in his ruling in the
forced-sterilization case Buck v. Bell,
274 U.S. 200.
The concept is closely associated with
psychology, psychiatry, criminology, and
eugenics. However, the term imbecile
quickly passed into vernacular usage as
a derogatory term, and fell out of
professional use in the 20th century in
favor of mental retardation.
In recent decades, the phrases "mental
retardation", "mentally retarded", and
"retarded" initially used in a medical
manner, are regarded as derogatory and
politically incorrect much like moron,
imbecile, cretin, dolt and idiot,
formerly used as scientific terms in the
early 20th century. On October 5, 2010,
President of the United States Barack
Obama signed Senate Bill 2781, known as
"Rosa's Law", which changed references
in many Federal statutes that referred
to "mental retardation" to refer instead
to "intellectual disability".
See also 
Euphemism treadmill
References 
