or IDIO, in our laws, denotes a natural fool, or a fool from his birth. See IDIOCY.

The word is originally Greek, ἰδιώτης, which primarily imports a private person, or one who leads a private life, without any share or concern in the government of affairs.

IDIO is also used, by ancient writers, to signify a person ignorant or unlearned, and answers to illiteratus, or imperitus. In this sense, Victor tells us, in his Chronicon, that in the consulsip of Messala, the Holy Gospels, by command of the Emperor Anastasius, were corrected and amended, as having been written by idiot evangelists: Tantum ab idiotis evangelistas composita.