1894 Brewer’s / B / Benet (French)
A simpleton, so called because they were supposed to be, in a special way, the objects of God’s care. (French, béni, Old French, beneit, from Latin, benedictus.) We call an idiot an “Innocent” (q.v.).
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.