Mongolian idiocy

The word "idiot" was previously a technical term used in both legal and psychiatric contexts for some type of profound intellectual disability, wherein the person's developmental stage was considered to be two years or less. Along with terms like "moron", "imbecile", and "cretin", "idiot" has become a classical description of diminished mental capacity in legal, medical and psychiatric terms. ==History==

John Langdon Down first characterized what is now known as Down syndrome as a distinguishable form of mental disability in 1862, and in a more widely published report in 1866. Due to his perception that these children shared facial similarities with the populations that German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach described as the "Mongolian race", Down used the term "mongoloid" in his characterisation of these patients. The term "Mongolism" was used by English psychiatrist and geneticist Lionel Penrose as late as 1961. F. G. Crookshank published a pseudoscientific book in 1924 titled The Mongol in Our Midst which suggested that the syndrome was due to genetic traits literally inherited from Mongoloid races. Rock band Devo released a song titled "Mongoloid" in 1977, describing a man with Down syndrome. A few languages retained the colloquialism "Mongol" to mean "idiot". Racing driver Max Verstappen called Lance Stroll a "Mongol" after a collision in practice ahead of the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix. ==Deprecation of the term==

In 1961, genetic experts wrote a joint letter to the medical journal The Lancet which read: In 1965, WHO resolved to abandon the term at the request of the Mongolian People's Republic. The term thereafter began to fade from use, in favor of ''Down's syndrome, Down syndrome and Trisomy 21 disorder''. The term "Mongolian idiocy" was reported as continuing in use at least 15 years after the WHO's decision to abandon it; in his book ''The Panda's Thumb'', published in 1980, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould reported that the term "Mongolism" was still commonly used in the United States, despite being "defamatory" and "wrong on all counts". ==References==