embetterment?? Idiot??

[Barnhart]

Re: embetterment:

Embetter is an entry in some large dictionaries.  Betterment is an
entry in most large dictionaries.  So, why not embetterment?  When I am
wearing my "neologism-watcher"-hat, I jump for joy over embetterment.
When I think about it from the point of view of analogical linguistic
formations, I think "how nice."

>From the standpoint of idiot vs. moron, I find that reading the OED
entry is very enlightening.   Senses are organized usually on the basis
of oldest first.  In OED:

1a. a person without learning (1377)
b. a layman (1380)
c. one not professionally learned or skilled (1638)
2. a person so deficient in mental or intellectual faculty as to be
incapable of ordinary acts of reasoning or rational conduct (a1300)
b. a term of reprobation for one who speaks of acts in what the speaker
considers an irrational way (c1375)
c. a man of weak intellect maintained to afford amusement to others
(1526)
3 aatrib or quasi-adj.
4 comb.

2b seems to be the appropriate one, don't you think?

Regards,
David
barnhart at highlands.com