Tales in Etymology

[jackshoegazer]

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.
 

Comments

[bythebootstraps.livejournal.com]

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.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

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.