He maybe be even too stupid for that? What do you think is higher? An imbecile?
Binet’s original scale of mental measurement had included two gradations of deficiency: the “idiot,” who had a mental age of 2 or younger, and the “imbecile,” who had a mental age of 3 to 7 years.
However, Goddard was not satisfied that this scale adequately addressed the problem of mental deficiency (see Thomson 1998). He believed the greatest threat to civilization’s advance lay with those who demonstrated a mental age of 8 to 12 years.
This group, consisting of those closest to a “normal” mental age (13 or older), posed the greatest danger, in his opinion. Goddard hoped to draw attention to their presence in the public school systems that were struggling to make “normal” people out of them by keeping them in regular classes.
Goddard, therefore, constructed his own term from the Greek word for foolish, moronia and the result was the diagnostic label of the “moron” for those who exhibited a mental age of 8 to 12 years.
So you’re right, imbecile it is.