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

[protodisco.livejournal.com]

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.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

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.

[protodisco.livejournal.com]

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.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

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.