noun. a health problem correlated with thyroid insufficiency. The terminology come from an Old French work, chretien, meaning Christian, due to the multitude of sufferers in formative years being the youths of a European Christian region that survived on food in which the iodine supply was insufficient in remote valleys of the Alps.
CRETINISM: “Cretinism is often marked by stunted growth and development, both cognitively and physically.”