Nowadays, it's a vulgar word synonymous with 'dumbshit', 'fuckwit' or, simply, 'moron'. The suggestion is that the person so designated lacks intelligence. Although intent to slander may be clear, the most accurate or effective choice of words is not.
Chances are good that if you've been called an idiot, and especially if you've ever called anyone else an idiot, then you don't know what one is and that you, yourself, are an idiot. The confusion arises because idiocy has more to do with property than with intelligence. Indeed, some of the smartest individuals are complete idiots.
Idiot derives from the Greek -idios, meaning 'private', 'one's own', or 'proper to one's self'. With relatives including idiom and idiosyncrasy, it has a peculiar ring. As you can imagine, idiots have their own way of seeing and doing things; they live in a world of their own.
The ancient Athenians used the word scornfully to distinguish idiots from citizens, on account of the latter's participation in common, public (i.e. civilized) life. It was considered selfish to abstain from the requirements of citizenship, which, besides correct birth, were education and service. The implication is that to be an idiot is 'to value individual satisfaction more highly than the common good'.
Idiot entered the Latin language when Roman soldiers slaughtered the Athenian armies, the latter composed mostly of private citizens unschooled in combat with only a few genuine officers. Private was the name given to the lowest rank to describe men who (briefly) fought in their own clumsy way, and the tradition continues. In his own inept attempt to classify varieties of mental retardation, Dr. Henry Goddard confused lack of education and/or the lowest military rank with IQ levels as measured by a peculiar (and flawed) theory of 'mental ages', with idiot at the bottom of the scale (aged less than three years).
The most notorious idiot in English literature must be Sherlock Holmes - and for a real case study, consider Howard Hughes. Maybe instead of calling someone an idiot in a moment of otherwise justifiable anger, you might instead point out that they have their own private understanding of the matter and/or that they may be a closet sociopath. If you feel that you are being called an idiot unjustly, you might simply smile and say, "And you, Dr. Watson, are feeble-minded."
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