Talk:village idiot

The term first appears in the preface to George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara, which opened in 1907. It already appeared in print much earlier:

• The Abduction, or the adventures of Major Sarney, apparently anonymous author, 1825, vol. 2, pp. 170 and 198
• H Ellen Browning: A girl's wandering in Hungary, second edition 1897, p. 317

I verified the publishing years. Google ngrams has some more. --88.73.24.184 22:04, 15 October 2012 (UTC)