jackshoegazer | Tales in Etymology

Tales in Etymology

I was reading an article about how U2's Bono recently called Elvis a "white nigger" which is pretty fucking racist no matter how he meant it. In the article, it mentions that in the poem that Bono read, there are offensive words like "nigger" (obviously) and "spastic".

HUH? Spastic is an offensive word? So I looked it up. I had no idea that the word had its origins with cerebral palsy, the main symptom of which is spasticity. Growing up, I knew that words like nerd, geek, spaz, dweeb, et cetera... all had original and quite specific meanings, but they sort of homogenized into rather bland slang insults meaning roughly the same thing.

Now my vocabulary is better and more specific and now I will only use spastic in proper context. (Though, I never ever called anyone a spaz.) However, I still have a hard time not saying "retarded" as a pejorative.

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and "cute" meant bow-legged!

I also have a hard time with 'retarded'. It fits so well into my vocabulary, but I don't want to be an asshole.

I say it with a Boston accent (I picked up the term there). Somehow it seems like a different word when I say retaaaaded.

(I know that's pretty retaaaded).

But I'd never call a developmentally delayed person that. Even if they were an idiot.

Right, but calling someone who isn't developmentally delayed "retarded" is arguably much more hurtful than calling a someone who is. It's analogous to saying "You throw like a chick!" or "that movie was gay!" It implies that those things (a woman, a homosexual, a retarded person) are so bad that to be them is, well, insulting.

You know how I feel about "retarded," and in part the wake-up call for me was having a cousin with CP and mental retardation. I think that being more clear and informed with our language is the first step towards breaking down the ableist prejudices we might not even know we have.

Well said. I have to work really hard on that word myself, and have had my own wake-up call due to my work with people with disabilities.

Jeremy's 13-year-old Ethan says it, and I always correct him to say "ridiculous" instead - he's more likely to remember if it's the same word-swap consistently. Of course, there's no noun that takes the place of "retard," though he never really uses that phrase that I know of.

My son says it, too. I try to swap out for "stupid" and get him to do the same. I am really bad about using it as a noun, particularly when it comes to my dog. I'm working on it, though. Saying that things are "gay" when we mean stupid has always been a huge no-no in our house, so I feel that I need to extend the same rule across the board.

The wonderful thing about Bono is that every time you think he can't possibly be more of a douche, he proves you wrong.

Seriously. I bet he's signed a multi-million dollar deal to be the spokesperson for Summer's Eve. They can put him on the boxes like fucking Wheaties :P

Speaking of insulting language.. now you're implying that being something used to clean a woman's vagina is so horrible no one would want to be one. ;P

I thought of that, but most of the literature I've read suggests that douching is actually a very unhealthy practice, so I relented and decided it is indeed a very bad thing. Perhaps I'm wrong? I am a dude and therefore less qualified to make decisions about vaginas. :P

I actually love the word douche, and yes, douche itself is very bad, but I suspect its evolution into an insult had more to do with dirty vaginae than an unhealthy and unnecessary practice. However, let's rewrite history and yell douchebag from the top of the world! Or... something.

If you honestly decide you no longer want to say "douche", you can use "Wentz" instead. The Internet at some point in time decided that Pete Wentz, lead singer of Fall Out Boy, is a massive douche, and in many circles "Wentz" is well-recognized as a substitute for "douche", "douchebag", etc.

Wait, wait. Now, I'll preface this by saying that the reason I don't know is because I don't care. But go ahead and tell me what Bono does/did that is douchey?

That's interesting, as "spastic" is very well known as an offensive word over here. It's probably because the main British CP charity, Scope, was for a long time called The Spastic Society - so the word fell into common use and eventually became derogatory along with slang like "spaz", etc.

Weird. That word and it's slang forms are almost extinct here.

You know, I actually never thought twice about retard or retarded, and even used to laugh at my uncle for doing poor imitations of "retarded" people.

When my son was born and we discovered that he had autism along with a pretty severe speech and language delay, we encountered a caustic and bitter pediatrician that gave us a diatribe on how "pc" language was the reason he didn't dare call our son retarded. Hearing it related to Juniper was horrible and suffice it to say I wasn't laughing anymore.

I was guilty (as lots of people are) of the insensitivity that goes along with never having had to directly face a loved one's battles with mental/physical disability.

Ah, Bono. He's got a lot of money and at least he's putting a great deal of it to good use. I really want to read fully what he said, not that I would defend his use of the word he used, but just to see what messed up context he meant it in.

Here's the article so you can get context: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6279490.ece

Yeah, how dare pc language make us actually and accurately diagnose a kid rather than write them off as 'retarded'. WOW.

Since it's a poem and uses a lot of historical context, he could have been referencing what people called Elvis during his time. Plenty of news outlets and individuals are on record as calling him a jungle bunny, and yeah- a white nigger. So I don't think Bono was owning it as in he himself would call Elvis that, but that these are things he's been known as/for-- but that's just how I viewed it. Poetry is tricky that way.

Yeah, and that was actually the doctor's direct attitude. He didn't want to do the work of referring us to speech therapists and filing insurance paperwork, so he would have been happier if we wrote our son off as slow and moved on. We left the office and never went back, I still don't understand why I didn't go off on the man- I guess I was just too shocked!

I see Dan Savage is saying "leotarded" these days instead of "retarded".

I'm a panelist at WisCon for this panel:

Rethinking Disabling Metaphor

Insults and epithets are pervasively framed as physical and mental differences, such as "they are blind to needed change and deaf to reason." These unconscious metaphors strongly influence how people with actual disabilities are perceived—by the world and by ourselves. This highly–interactive session will include role play and brainstorming to identify these disabling metaphors, deconstruct their logical errors, and invent more accurate, yet still powerful alternatives.

So I've been thinking about it a lot. We all do it-- it's insidious! I'm been trying lately to eliminate "lame" from my stock pejoratives. In fact, I wonder about pejoratives as a category. Insults are the worst offenders-- we insult people by categorizing them as gay, as retarded, as lame, as "pussies". It's revealing about what we devalue in our heads and in society.

I'm just thinking out loud here.

We need to accentuate accurate negative pejoratives! Nazi! Neocon! Douche! Dan Brown book! Wet dog smell! Poopie!

I think I have to start calling people "wet dog smell".

In fact, I know I do.

I really like the wet dog smell one, and the Dan Brown book!

I'm not so sure about Nazi-- maybe I've just heard "Femi-Nazi" too many times!

It's interesting- with many of these phrases, there is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. With others, like crazy, dictionaries have adpoted the newer use and the medical field has abandoned the older use - meaning, people aren't clinically "crazy," but a dress could have a crazy color pattern, or a plan could be "crazy" and the dictionary would define that as random or bizarre or unrealistic. In the case of lame, as an adjective it also means weak, or feeble - a lame excuse is one that doesn't hold up to scruitiny, and a lame leg is one that doesn't hold up the body effectively.

Language is so organic, and I've fascinated with how meanings change over time - a "geek" used to be a carnival freak that bit the heads off of chickens (and other vulgar acts), and a "dork" was a penis! "Square" used to mean honest, trustworthy, and together, and then the meaning was used in a derogatory sense after WWII. "Schmuck" literally means penis in Yiddish!

That is a great deconstruction! *thinks* It's clarifying for me when and why "lame" is derogatory... a lame excuse is a feeble excuse, a lame leg is a lame leg, (and it's a common term for horses), and those are accurate terms. But when someone says, "Oh, you're so lame for not coming out with us tonight and doing X instead," which has become very casual and accepted speech, it seems like the underlying subtext is-- "you are weak and feeble, therefore unacceptable/uncool". It creeps in.

Yes! The derogatory use is insidious - it does creep in! I'm trying to think of what might be a better phrase than "You're so lame for not coming out" because I use it in that context all the time.

How about, "I am moderately disappointed that I will not be enjoying your exuberant company this fine evening."

"You're so disappointing!"

i think it's worth mentioning that Bono was also called a "white nigger" by a black musician, and evidently it was a compliment in that context. Or at least Bono thought so. Heh.
I certainly don't endorse use of that kind of language, but i realize some people have different meanings for some words. (Though of course it would be wise for them to remember that that word is usually very insulting.)
Kind of reminds me of a certain Patti Smith song...hehe

The mental image that goes through my head when I say "retarded" isn't of someone mentally handicapped in the traditional sense, it's of George Bush and Sarah Palin.

Which, in retrospect, is probably even more offensive to the mentally handicapped.

One problem is that we're using the set of symbols the world has given us and the only way to convey the things we have to say is through this (substantial) set of symbols. The word retard is only what someone is using to accurately portray whatever they're thinking. Nobody says to themselves "I'm going to be inefficient with my language" - they just apply whatever meaning they have in their head to the symbols they've already been provided with. Language is transient, lets treat it that way. I'm not saying we should be openly insensitive and just insist people get over it, or whatever - but any language mob worth their weight wouldn't think about judging something minus the context.

It'd be easier if we all had our individual symbols. Language is such a broken and faulty thing.

The problem is that we think of racism, ableism, sexism, in terms of the big violations - the KKK, women not having the right to vote, wheelchair-bound people not having ramps. What remains is much more insidious; institutionalized forms of any "ism" are much harder to fight, in part because they need to be recognized and acknowledged first. Language DOES matter, and context is no justification for ignorance or bigotry. If all people were treated equally, we wouldn't even be discussing it.

I don't think anyone is trying to use context as a justification for ignorance or bigotry - maybe ignorance as a justification for context, but that's not the same thing. As this conversation (all of the comments above, not just yours and mine) have shown, our grasp on language and etymology is tenuous and things that used to wield great power (or used to be medical terms) have been diminished by common usage/had their meanings changed entirely. It works the other way too obviously, things that weren't pejorative shift into truly offensive terms - all of which depends on the context provided.

I would never say that language doesn't matter, I'm just saying its imperfect.

I was responding in part to a) your mention of being inefficient with language (I'd argue that it's not about inefficiency, but offensiveness) and b) your mention of "the language mob." And I'd rather not excuse offensive language based on the transience of language - sure, it's imperfect, but there are plenty of appropriate synonyms that aren't based on notions of equality, that's all.

I remeber the uproar during the Simpson trial-cum-circus when (Chochran? Bailey?) referenced Marcia Something's behavior as "hysterics", which was promptly thrown before the court like a dead cat, as "hysteria" stems from "hyster-" (womb) and implied a wandering uterus to be the origin.

While I can see the inherent offense in such terms, I think there are times when people need to ease up a bit.

Yup, I have been wondering where the movement to change hysterectomy has been. It's a pretty offensive word, since it literally means to remove the crazy :P

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