[f. prec. + -ISM: in mod.F. crétinisme.] The condition of a cretin; a species of imperfect mental and physical development, or combination of deformity and idiocy, endemic in some valleys of the Alps and elsewhere.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 176. Physical and moral remedies that may be employed in preventing the Wen and Cretinism.
1891. Lancet, 3 Oct., 782/2. Cretinism is becoming more common in the Pyrenean and Alpine valleys.
So Cretinist.
1858. G. Smith, in Oxford Ess., 266. Some of his [Newman’s] party displayed in University matters something of that ‘cretinist’ tendency which they have since developed in its natural sphere.
