Pity vs Idiot - What's the difference?

pity | idiot |


As nouns the difference between pity and idiot

is that pity is a feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something while idiot is a person of low general intelligence.

As a verb pity

is to feel pity for (someone or something).

As an interjection pity

is short form of what a pity.

pity

English

Alternative forms

* pitty (obsolete)

Noun

  • (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xix. 17
    • He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hehas no more pity in him than a dog.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, p.5:
    • The most usuall way to appease those minds we have offendedis, by submission to move them to commiseration and pitty .
  • (countable) Something regrettable.
    • It's a pity you're feeling unwell because there's a party on tonight.
  • * Laurence Sterne
    • It was a thousand pities .
  • * Addison
    • What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!
  • (obsolete) piety
    • (Wyclif)

    Synonyms

    * (mercy) ruth * (something regrettable) shame

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To feel pity for (someone or something).
  • * Bible, Psalms ciii. 13
    • Like as a father pitieth' his children, so the Lord ' pitieth them that fear him.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.11:
    • She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee; / That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.
  • * Book of Common Prayer
    • It pitieth them to see her in the dust.

    Interjection

  • Short form of what a pity.

    • Synonyms

    * shame, what a pity, what a shame

    Derived terms

    * piteous * pitiable * pitiful * self-pity * what a pity ----

    idiot

    English

    Alternative forms

    * eejit * idjit, idget (eye dialect)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (pejorative) A person of low general intelligence.
    • usage note This may be used pejoratively, as an insult. It is a weak insult, however, and between close friends, family members, or lovers, is often completely nonaggressive.
  • (obsolete, medicine, psychology) A person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal four-year-old.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * genius

    Related terms

    * idiocy * idiom * idiosyncratic * idiotic * idiotically * idiot savant * useful idiot