Freak
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Nowadays, "freak" more colloquially refers to people who are physically normal (usual number of limbs and organs, etc.) but otherwise odd. Think Napoleon Dynamite in the eponymous film, or Ally sheedy's character in The Breakfast Club, or indeed the obviously titled TV show, Freaks and Geeks. In a mutational sense, "freak" has taken on a highly un-PC connotation. Just as the days of bearded ladies and midgets in the sideshow are over, so has this term for them passed into the realm of Things Polite People Really Just Don't Say Anymore (at least to refer to a freak of the genetic sort).
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General
A freak is often considered an insulting term for an organism with an abnormality of some kind. Freaks are generally classified into two basic groups, these being natural freaks and made freaks. A natural freak is a mutant and a made freak is one who, though wasn’t born abnormally, experienced a change sometime during their life.
Natural Freak
History
Before the birth of genetics, various theories were created to explain the existence of these natural abnormalities. Many of the superstitious theories created pseudo-sciences that are believed by some to this day. The currently accepted theory regards the one mentioned in the mutation article.
In ancient times and up to the early 20th century, the birth of children with abnormalities was heavily associated with astrological events. Rues cited the recent solar ellipses as reason for the increase number of mutated infants born at that time. Another prominent theory of the 19th century was the one in which, if a pregnant woman was scared by an object or organism, the child would be born with the quality of the source. This is to say that if she was frightened by a bird, the infant may supposedly be born with wings.
See Also
External Links
- Freaks at Monstrous.com (http://freaks.monstrous.com/)