# Is the term "handicapper" offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 25, 2004, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974 "2004-05-25T12:18:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/21 "2004-05-26T16:14:54Z")
> [@](#): > > The only person I ever heard use this was a double amputee (thanks to 'Nam) and he had a mordant, Callahanesque sense of humor. Anybody who dared pity him got the razor side of his tongue. He could be quite hilarious, racing a “blue hair for the gimp spot” or bragging about his prowess at baseball–as third base. But you had to know him very well indeed, as well as catch him at the right moment, to make a comment like that yourself. Most times it’s just plain unacceptable. > > Veb Sounds like a friend of ours who was/still is paralyzed from the waist down from a racing accident. The guy was hell on wheels in every sense of the word. Has a wicked sense of humor, could drink you under the table and beat the living snot out of you playing pool. And, he was a chick magnet at every bar even with average looks. \*Racing blue hairs for the gimp spot \* this is just priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/22 "2004-05-26T16:26:03Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > Like the other posters, I’ve never heard it outside of a gambling context. I think your dad’s use of it is rather odd, and depending on the context, it could be somewhat offensive. > > _My_ dad refers to handicapped parking spaces as “gimp spots.” I do that to. And the"gimp stall" in a public restroom. I don’t do these things within earshot of anyone…just if I’m relaying a story to someone who isn’t a handicapped person. Usually my father or husband. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/23 "2004-05-26T19:06:11Z")
The disabled people I’ve known have generally disliked the use of “handicapped” and any of its variants due to the fact that when used for sporting events, if you “handicap” somebody, you place him at a disadvantage because he’s a _better_ athlete than the others. This is the exact opposite of what “handicapped” parking spaces and other things are for. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/24 "2004-05-26T19:48:32Z")
I _know_ a handicapper. His name is Eric Alwin and he works at Sunland Park Race Track. I’ve never heard the word used to discribe a disabled person until this thread. ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/25 "2004-05-27T10:36:19Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > Oooooh, a double disabled and poised to crush my toes. Most excellent. Rock on, dudette. can I have your parking place at Christmas 🙂 Be my guest. I don’t go near the malls in December (I’m not THAT impaired!) but you can’t have my parking tag. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/26 "2004-05-27T11:17:56Z")
> [@SmackFu](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > In the UK ‘handicapped’ is pretty much an obsolete term. > > Only officially, or among the common people too? ‘mentally handicapped’ is (in my experience) far more common than ‘mentally disabled’, but for physical disabilities, ‘disabled’ is more common than ‘handicapped’. This terminology has been subject to quite rapid change though. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2004, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/27 "2004-05-27T13:35:45Z")
I’ve never heard “handicapper” in the disabled-person sense either. It strikes me as slightly insulting – kind of like, “She’s one of them women’s-libbers” – but maybe not everyone who says it is using it to be insulting. It’s still kind of unusual though. ---
**Author:** ![whistlepig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@whistlepig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whistlepig)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/28 "2004-05-28T00:02:45Z")
Some in the disability community find the term 'handicaped" offensive, as it supposedly derives from the term “hand in cap”, meaning a beggar. I’m too lazy to look up a cite - I work in special education, so the research would feel like I had gone back to work. Whistlepig ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/29 "2004-05-28T00:06:27Z")
> [@whistlepig](#): > > Some in the disability community find the term 'handicaped" offensive, as it supposedly derives from the term “hand in cap”, meaning a beggar. It comes from hand-in-cap, but has nothing to do with begging: [http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/handicap.htm](http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/handicap.htm) ---
**Author:** ![whistlepig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@whistlepig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whistlepig)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/30 "2004-05-28T00:15:21Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > It comes from hand-in-cap, but has nothing to do with begging: [http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/handicap.htm](http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/handicap.htm) Thanks, in Snopes I trust. Whistlepig ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/31 "2004-05-28T14:46:09Z")
Thank you all for your responses. He won’t stop doing it, of course, even when I make it clear that I’m offended by it. He’s not an asshole per se - well, he sort of is, but he doesn’t hold disabled people in any particular disregard. I indeed think it’s strange, and it’s worth noting that when I searched google, the only references in the first few pages of results for “handicapper” referred to sports. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/32 "2004-05-28T15:07:10Z")
Anyone else notice that the less syllables a term has, the more likely it is considered or feared to be considered offensive or out-of-date? Handicapped person =\> handicapper Japanese =\> Jap differently abled =\> disabled ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974/33 "2004-05-28T15:25:17Z")
I know I’m a bit late but as the brother of mentally-retarded person (cerbral palsy and numerous other birth defects) and the friend/employee of a disabled woman, I would be offended by anyone using the term “handicapper”. It sounds dismissive and derogatory to me. And the “gimp” discussion has my stomach churning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-handicapper-offensive/246974.md?page=1)