dull: not generally the same meaning in American English: means stupid or boring rather than uncool. Though I have heard it used as a full on synonym for “lame” in British English.
insipid: I guess the meaning is similar, but the connotations are different, IMO.
boring: again not the same meaning. Something boring is generally lame, but not everything that is lame is boring.
uninspiring: I guess maybe a lame speech would be uninspiring, but I wouldn’t call a lame stunt uninspiring.
pedestrian: feels very linguistically elitist. In other words, people who say something is “very pedestrian” sound like snobs.
vapid: Seems even further away than the rest. I’m having trouble thinking of any sentence where I would normally write “lame” and “vapid” would fit.
milquetoast: similar problems with “pedestrian,” though a word I personally like.
I guess maybe we could start using some of those words in situations where we might say “lame” (especially “dull”) but, unlike using “nerfed” for “crippled,” none of them seem to be a drop-in replacement.
I do thank you for coming up with them, though. And I welcome disagreement with my assessments—as long as you explain said disagreement.
I must admit, I don’t use “lame” myself, it feels like something a kid would say. Or an Archie character. I would tend to go for greater specificity.
Can you give an example of when you would use “lame” that none of the others would fit?
Or is it that I’m not seeing the distinction you’re drawing between “uncool” and “boring”? By “uncool” do you mean what I would think of as someone saying “Not cool, bro! Not cool!” I wouldn’t use “uncool” for that. “Uncool” would be more like gauche, or nebbishy or (in the old days) nerdy. Socially awkward.
I’d like hear what @BigT (or anyone else) thinks “lame” does mean in American. Not as a calling-out challenge, but because we’ll all do a lot better at coming up with decent alternatives if we can semi-agree on what “lame” means. Being as nowadays (ref @RivkahChaya) it’s a slang usage I’d bet we’ll find a much wider spread on what people think it means / connotes.
Here’s my take:
Something is lame if it’s at least two of weak/ineffectual, stupid/ignorant, and socially inept/tone deaf. But the best lame-itude has all three factors. And something lame can’t be mean-spirited; it has to be socially inept or tone deaf; if it’s simply mean, abusive, bullying, etc., that disqualifies it from lameness.
@MrDibble The thing is, part of what makes it so hard to come up with a replacement is that it’s hard to define. I’m going to have to rely on others.
@LSLGuy’s attempt isn’t bad. I also tried looking up the word in a dictionary. I got one that seemed close, though what it defines as multiple definitions, I consider it more different facets of a single definition, and multiple parts must be present (just as @LSLGuy suggests). All of the examples it gives works:
2: lacking needful or desirable substance : WEAK, INEFFECTUAL “a lame excuse”
3 slang : not being in the know : SQUARE
“She’s cool, but her boyfriend is so lame.”
4a: INFERIOR “a lame school”
b: CONTEMPTIBLE, NASTY “lame racist jokes”
That last example may violate @LSLGuy’s idea that something that is “lame” can’t be meanspirited. But I would have no problem describing racist jokes as “lame.” It’s just that all the other definitions would also apply. As would “stupid” and “unfunny.”
I think “hobbled” is fine. I’ve been looking, ans it appears that the original meaning of “to hobble” is something like “to restrict the gait of someone.” There’s no implication of purpose, nor whether it is a permanent state.
At the turn of the last century (1900-1910), there was a skirt fashionable that got very narrow at the ankles so that a woman wearing one could not take a long stride, and it was called a “hobble skirt.”
As an intransitive verb, the definitions I’m finding pretty much agree that it’s walking with a poor gait due to an injury.
So, I’m seeing a pretty good distinction between “hobble” and “cripple.” “Cripple” is a permanent impairment, and “hobble” is a temporary condition imposed for some reason, usually. There were lots of examples of devices called “hobbles” that kept animals from running away.
It is kind of non-meaningful, though, as the primary use of that terminology, IDE, is fading, being supplanted by SATA and Flash, neither of which use those designations (SATA ports are device-discrete, and Flash largely uses SATA-type protocols).