imbecile

• n. 愚かな人
• adj.無能な;愚かな;気弱な

im-、not、non、bec-、support、pole、語源はbachelor、bacillusと同じ。

imbecile

imbecile: [16] Etymologically imbecile means ‘without support’, hence ‘weak’. It came via French from Latin imbēcillus, a compound adjective formed from the prefix in- ‘not’ and an unrecorded *bēcillum, a diminutive variant of baculum ‘stick’ (from which English gets bacillus and bacterium). Anyone or anything without a stick or staff for support is by extension weak, and so the Latin adjective came to mean ‘weak, feeble’. This broadened out to ‘weak in mind’, and was even used as a noun for ‘weak-minded person’, but English did not adopt these metaphorical uses until the late 18th century.
=> bacillus, bacterium

imbecile (adj.)

1540s, imbecille "weak, feeble" (especially in reference to the body), from Middle French imbecile (15c.), from Latin imbecillus "weak, feeble" (see imbecility). Sense shifted to mental weakness from mid-18c. (compare frail, which in provincial English also could mean "mentally weak"). As a noun, "feeble-minded person," it is attested from 1802. Traditionally an adult with a mental age of roughly 6 to 9 (above an idiot but beneath a moron).

1. It was an imbecile thing to do.

こんなことをするのは愚かだ。

2.For two years that imbecile threw his money away like this.

2年間、あのバカはこのようにお金を浪費してきた。

3.Did you ever see anything so imbecile as her mother？

彼女の母親のような無駄な人は珍しいと言っていますか。

4.He was an imbecile to sign a contract with them.

彼は彼らと契約したが、本当に愚かだった。

5.I 've very good mind to shake you severely，for your contemptible treachery，and your imbecile conceit.

私はあなたをひどく揺り動かしたいです。あなたの卑劣な奸計と、あなたの低能な奇想のためです。