can of worms: retarded semantics (colourful language warning)
I've been talking and emailing a blue streak about this post with people, and the concensus amoung Canadians, generally speaking, including a couple of the profs and PhDs I work with, is that the word retard doesn't really bring to mind handicapped people. Apparently there has been some lasting success with our political correctness campaigns disassociating the word from a biological condition.
Being a curious sort, I wanted to see if my theory about the dictionary definition of retard was anywhere close to what I suspected, and I am not the least bit shocked at what I found. If you recall, M-W online, which would logically be an up-to-date and very current resource, defines 'retard' as both a verb and a noun. It also notes that the word retard is a derogatory term.
Neither was the case in 1907 - apparently bonsai was considered retarding a tree lol (these are high-resolution and you can click on the images to read them):
Being a curious sort, I wanted to see if my theory about the dictionary definition of retard was anywhere close to what I suspected, and I am not the least bit shocked at what I found. If you recall, M-W online, which would logically be an up-to-date and very current resource, defines 'retard' as both a verb and a noun. It also notes that the word retard is a derogatory term.
Neither was the case in 1907 - apparently bonsai was considered retarding a tree lol (these are high-resolution and you can click on the images to read them):
By 1952 nothing much had changed. (I included the whole picture because I really like the mushrooms illumination - perhaps it was foreshadowing of things to come...)
By 1966, however, there were all sorts of colourful ways of defining people with mental handicaps as being retarded.
So, sometime between the 50s and the 60s, the word came into vogue, by the 80s people were protesting against it, and by it is defined as 'offensive.' This evolution of the word came about, I believe, because it is the WRONG WORD TO USE. Relegate the word retard back to being a noun that describes engines, bonsai, and tides, already.
When I told her that the US Special Olympics had launched a campaign reclaiming the word for the mentally handicapped folks on our little green planet, my older sister, in all her nerdy biologist, summed it up quite nicely. "oh for crying out loud. for real?? jesus. my two cents worth, "retard" strictly refers to individuals that could also be referred to as "moron" and/or "****wits". it's derogatory from top to bottom - and should be reserved for morons and ****wits."
When I told her that the US Special Olympics had launched a campaign reclaiming the word for the mentally handicapped folks on our little green planet, my older sister, in all her nerdy biologist, summed it up quite nicely. "oh for crying out loud. for real?? jesus. my two cents worth, "retard" strictly refers to individuals that could also be referred to as "moron" and/or "****wits". it's derogatory from top to bottom - and should be reserved for morons and ****wits."
Comments
The noun "retard" refers to the delay, not the tree, the tide, the engine or the person.
Why doesn't it offend you to use "retard"/"retarded" inappropriately, as you do? How could you even consider using "moron" which to my awareness has only ever had one meaning?
I'm stepping out of this. I am not clear if/why/when you find the word offensive, so it's pissing into the wind to carry on.
All things used to extreme or inappropriately are poison. It doesn't make them less useful in proper context/amount.
If you go back to the original definition, then, to call a restaurant that isn't up to standards, to refer to an insurance company as being delayed in its service, to be frustrated with an inferior car door design, or to describe a person who eats-drives-smokes-texts as being one who has cognitive disabilities, using 'retarded' becomes completely accurate.
The ONLY time it seems to be offensive is when someone uses it in reference to a handicapped person because of all the negative connotations associated with it. So why wouldn't we try and detach it? If the original context of the word was intended to describe the delay itself, and delay is an acceptable word without all the negative connotations, I prefer to use the word delay (a synonym for the verb retard but without all the bells and whistles.)
Oddly enough, I can see that anonymous and I are actually arguing the same point, but angling for different outcomes. Where anonymous feels the word should lose its negative connotations, I personally think it would be of greater benefit to change the etymology of 'retard' to include any and all reference to handicapped people as being defunct and archaic, and have it disallowed in Scrabble for being slang for a ****wit or moron.
For whatever it's worth, most debates on social change start off as people pissing into the wind. I bet Martin Luther King, Jr. was told he was pissing in the wind once, too. Thank you, anonymous, for taking the time to wade in on a subject that is obviously quite close to both our hearts, even if we don't see it quite the same way.
Consider: "That car door design is delayed" What? Unless the blueprint didn't come in the mail this morning, that sentence is meaningless.
Then consider: "That person's mental development is delayed", or "The onset of the spark in this engine is delayed" - in both cases the event happens more slowly than expected....it's delayed or retarded.
Lots of words have negative connotations in certain contexts, but are accurate and suitable in others.
I'm still surprised by your repeated suggestion of "moron" given that it has only the one meaning, and an unhappy history as well, witout benefit of being anything other than a label.
Anyone disallowing "retard" in Scrabble for that reason simply hasn't grasped the actual meaning of the word and is hung up on the colloquial use as an insult with the accent on the first syllable.
Using the word "retard" as a label isn't an accurate use of the word, even if it does get used in some parts. I personally don't see the angst over refering to someone as "mentally retarded", when it is true. Why does the synonym "cognitive delay" mean anything different? It doesn't, but no one has adapted it to use in general terms towards inanimate objects and bad drivers.
Hurling out "you retard" at someone who cuts you off in traffic? yeah, offensive to the probably mentally normal driver, AND those with cognitive delays.
I don't see this on par with MLK, Ghandi* or any other social change hero, in any way. Especially as you freely use the derogatory form of the word yourself, out of context and inaccurately, in a hateful way, and seem to want to defend that use and refuse the correct, if uncommon, useages of the word. (I hear you saying "I'd rather say delay, but I'll call bad drivers retards, cuz I don't MEAN it".)
Next up? Colloquial use of "spaz"? Or maybe not. Do you know someone with CP? What defines the starting point for your social conscience?
*Ghandi is an "interesting" fellow, if you go beneath the iconic perception of him.
In the case of a car door design, it does not make sense to use retarded, because the door design is not delayed, it is not up to standard.
Actually, in the case of mental function, it doesn't make a lot of sense either, unless that person is going to "catch up". They're not delayed. They are different.
Engines can be retarded. So can mental development. Car door design, not so much.
Female dogs ARE bitches. That's the proper, commonly used word for a female dog. A breeder, vet or AHT would use it without a moment's hesitation, over "female dog" or "girl dog" or any other term.
The feelings of the female dog are a false argument. The word was used outside of proper context when it was used to label people, in precisely the same way you are using "retarded" to refer to car door design or poor drivers, or insurance companies.
I don't think we should campaign to repopularise the use of "retarded" or "retard", accent on 1st syllable, to refer to the actual people. "Your sister is a retard" isn't a) correct use of the word or b) very friendly.
Whether or not you want to accept that the term "mentally retarded" is completely different from either of the two uses above is, of course, your prerogative, but that doesn't change the puzzling fact that you yourself continue to use the word incorrectly and in a way that is NOT equivalent to "delay" but to "stupid" or "substandard", regardless of how you are attempting to twist the definition to suit your argument.
While your earlier can-o-worms post suggested it was a shame Webster et al. hadn't redefined the word to do away with its correct usage and only use the one you proposed, I put forth that it has NEVER lost its original meaning and that your proposed alternatives are in fact dependent on the abusive and incorrect use of it, rather than a move to "detoxify" the word back to its original meaning.
It seems self-serving to suggest that your proposed acceptable use of it is in no way connected to your sister's condition. In fact it seems MORE so than if you were to actually use the word correctly.
I think according to what you are trying to get across is that I'm somehow supposed to feel ashamed for using the term retarded because in your ears, you feel like that word is sanctioned for the mentally challenged people amoungst us. What I am saying is, I am as embarrassed FOR someone if they come and start using the term (retarded with or without the mentally to clarify it) for developmentally disabled people, as embarrassed as I am for my grandmother who doesn't actually have a prejudiced bone in her body, when she called black people niggers.
As I've said, this has been an important lesson for me in how Canadian and US cultures differ, and I am glad to know that it would be seen as me being politically incorrect to refer to my jammed car door as retarded. I don't feel I need to 'justify' using it as slang any more than we need to justify using bitch as slang - let's keep moving in that direction.
I asked my kids what the word retarded meant. (I found this very interesting.) Someone who's a bad driver, something that's really frustrating were the definitions they gave. Inside, I sighed relief ~YAY!~ because it means that despite living with an severely handicapped Aunty they've NEVER associated the word with her. ~YAY!~ In my eyes, if we let the word and all its forms drop out of popular use for differently abled persons, it'll be synonymous with bonsai and bad driving, and nothing to do with the mentally retarded of the 60s. Man, that will be groovy.
When 'bitch' was first used to define the bitch we know besides a female dog, it was 'out' of context, and because of popular use and a new common use and widely understood application of it, we see it now has an old and a 'new' context, not an old and 'wrong' context. Sure, we could detoxify, or move on. But what a huge waste of time and energy after all we went thorugh to go in the other direction. I still vote for a dictionary rewrite.
I'm really quite finished with dissecting the semantics of the word - correct and incorrect usage and how dictionary definitions can be interpreted - as I think we have both more than adequately made our cases for what we consider a) justified and b) proper use of the word on our own sides of the border. Cheers to you to a fantastic debate, and if anyone else cares to wade in on either side of the argument (or make a new one) cheers to you.
mo·ron (môrn, mr-)
n.
1. A stupid person; a dolt.
2. Psychology A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
moron
Noun
1. Informal, derogatory a foolish or stupid person
2. (formerly) a person having an intelligence quotient of between 50 and 70 [Greek mōros foolish]
moronic adj
moron - a person of subnormal intelligence
changeling, cretin, half-wit, idiot, imbecile, retard
mongoloid - a person suffering from Down syndrome (no longer used technically in this sense)
simpleton, simple - a person lacking intelligence or common sense
So, I'm OK being tired rice.