# Alternatives for "crippled" for "deliberately made worse" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301 "2021-01-12T01:34:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/21 "2021-01-12T17:25:36Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Has new terminology been introduced and gained any level of wider acceptance? I’ve heard parent & child. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/22 "2021-01-12T17:40:16Z")
Sabotaged? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/23 "2021-01-12T18:13:29Z")
No, sabotaged means damaged, made to fail. These programs are partially functional and can work if you send the author money. Often one payment is enough to unlock what you need, but more and more they are trying to further the ugly subscription model. ---
**Author:** ![blabbermeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9a140/32.png) [@blabbermeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blabbermeister)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/24 "2021-01-12T18:27:29Z")
Watered down? ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/25 "2021-01-12T19:05:54Z")
There’s a good german word : [verschlimmbessern](https://en.bab.la/dictionary/german-english/verschlimmbessern) ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/26 "2021-01-12T19:07:12Z")
Good reply/username combo ! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/27 "2021-01-12T20:14:42Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Has new terminology been introduced and gained any level of wider acceptance? May I suggest Dom/Sub? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/28 "2021-01-12T20:38:01Z")
Domain Subscriber? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/29 "2021-01-12T23:28:47Z")
If you’re trying to ascribe malice by the vendor, “maimed” is good in addition to many of the other sorta-violent alternatives upthread. “Hobbled” is probably the best mostly-value-neutral choice. Particularly for a feature than can unlocked by an upgrade, you want a word describing a reversible process. So no to “maimed”, but yes to “hobbled”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2021, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/30 "2021-01-13T22:19:59Z")
Hobbled and hamstrung are both great words, and not ones I think I’ve ever really used. I think they have the same breadth of meaning as “crippled,” which is nice. > [@Mangetout](#): > > I’ve seen ‘nerfed’ used in contexts similar to this (usually when certain important features are rendered unusable, either as a marketing scheme for the higher-price option, or by accident). That said, “nerfed” is the word that I really wanted but couldn’t think of. I think there’s this psychological phenomenon where you think of the wrong word, and then can’t think of the right one. It has to do with your brain “helpfully” clearing out similar words. I don’t remember the name for the concept. None of this is to say the other words here aren’t useful at times, too, BTW. I’ll probably use them all. Oh, and @Kent_Clark I was indeed talking about Microsoft. Specifically it’s how they nerfed Windows Update options. That said, it wouldn’t be so bad had they not hobbled their testing team. I just don’t think anyone should have to pay for Windows 10 Pro just to be able to hold off on updates for a bit to wait until the bugs get ironed out, so I always recommend using the “Pause Updates” feature. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2021, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/31 "2021-01-13T23:29:57Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > On a parallel note, where traditional industry terminology is now distasteful: It’s common in technological frameworks to have a primary system which holds most data, drives critical processes, and makes key decisions, and secondary systems which largely mirror the primary system and follow its lead. The usual way to describe this arrangement is “master” and “slave.” At my company, we’ve been told to remove this and similar terms. In the software I am aware of we did this a long time ago (not sure we ever used “slave”). We do use “subordinate” Brian ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/32 "2021-01-13T23:47:01Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > When I’m talking about these system relationships in my work, with clients or co-workers, I do my best to avoid this, using alternatives like “primary/subservient” and such. > > Am I alone? Does anyone else do this? Has new terminology been introduced and gained any level of wider acceptance? What I’d heard before was just primary and secondary, rather than subservient. However @N9IWP indicates they use that word, too. And I admit it’s been a while since I’ve heard these terms. It was mostly about IDE hard drives. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/33 "2021-01-13T23:47:14Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > At my company, we’ve been told to remove this and similar terms. Same here. They’ve suggested the following replacements for master/slave, depending on the context: Primary/Secondary Initiator/Target Server/Client Primary/Replica Source/Sink Coordinator/Worker Active/Standby Leader/Follower ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2021, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/34 "2021-01-13T23:55:25Z")
I think if you don’t want to say “Widget B is the same as Widget A, but they crippled it” you could simply say “They’re both the same but Widget B has some of the features turned off”. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/35 "2021-01-14T03:13:55Z")
Hydraulic systems typically have a master cylinder and a slave cylinder, and I have not heard much about revising that terminology, though I could see something like control/actuator in that case. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/36 "2021-01-14T03:21:59Z")
I’d advise not going with **gimped**. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/37 "2021-01-14T04:26:37Z")
“It’s gorked, Jim!” is also counter-recommended. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/38 "2021-01-14T06:04:43Z")
“Nerfed” is what I’d say at work. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/39 "2021-01-14T06:16:37Z")
“nerfed”? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301/40 "2021-01-14T07:05:30Z")
Think of a Nerf sword. It has the shape of a weapon, but it’s been made to be ineffective for that purpose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternatives-for-crippled-for-deliberately-made-worse/930301.md?page=3)