Abderite

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A person born or living in the ancient Greek city of Abdera ; someone regarded as foolish or lacking good sense, after the city's legendary reputation for stupidity
2. An inhabitant of the ancient Thracian town of Abdera ; a figure of ridicule for silliness, a term drawn from the mocking stereotype of that city's people
3. A native of the old Greek town of Abdera on the Thracian coast ; a dim-witted or absurd person, a label taken from the town's proverbial foolishness

Etymology: The town of Abdera, on the Thracian coast of the northern Aegean, gave English a word for a fool, and the joke behind it is older than the word. Ancient writers told a stock tale that the Abderites were collectively slow-witted, and the reputation became so proverbial that a native of the town could be taken as a byword for stupidity. The name itself reached English through Latin "Abderita" and "Abderites", both borrowed from Greek "Abdērítēs", meaning a person of Abdera. So the word has two senses that developed from one place. The first is plainly geographical: someone born in Abdera. The second, the dim-witted or absurd person, grew out of the town's reputation rather than any real fact about its people. A label that began as a neutral place-name ended as an insult, the way a town's nickname can outlast anything its residents actually did.