Celtic Soul,

I agree about its origin. If you say the word "idiot" with a "j" sound rather than an "i" after the "d" then you end up with "idjit". Or "eedjit" if you say the first syllable like Ren, i.e. "you ee-di-ot Stimpy". You get the "j" sound by running together the "i" & "o" sounds as one syllable which results in a "y" sound, which combines with the "d" to make the "j" sound.

Too much info, I know, but it fascinated me when I first heard someone pronounce "idiot" as "idjit" and I had to make some sense of how that pronunciation occurred to be able to get the word out of my brain - an ear-word, not ear-worm??

Helen