Other forms: imbeciles
Imbecile is a rude word for somebody behaving very stupidly. Blunt, and slightly old-fashioned.
Like cretin and moron, it began as a medical classification and became an insult, which is exactly why it lands so hard and why it is worth knowing the history before using it. It survives mainly in exasperation, often aimed at drivers. The adjective imbecilic exists and is rare. English has plenty of alternatives that carry no such history, including fool, idiot in its ordinary sense, and simply careless.
1nounimbecileA person behaving very stupidly, used as an insult.
“Some imbecile had left the gate open.”
Middle French
imbécile
English, today
imbecile
Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus (“weak, feeble”), literally “without a staff”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA