# The word 'retarded' & 'gay' **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 21, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416 "2003-11-21T01:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416/21 "2003-11-27T13:16:28Z")
As **Aide** says, no matter how diplomatically or delicately such a word or phrase is formed, it will eventually become a playground insult and will, further, become non-PC _because of this_. (I always thought “handicapped” was a perfectly polite and respectful word, in the sense that it is the extra weight put on certain horses to slow them down.) A telling but hardly charming story from this side of the pond. The society for the severely mentally disabled was called the Spastic Society (an acronym I think). Thus, kids called each other a “spastic”, which became “spaz”. This became so accepted as part of everyday language that the society _changed its name_, to “Scope”. And what do kids now call each other? “Scopers” or “Scopeys”. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416/22 "2003-11-27T15:19:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*According to most dictionaries, it comes from the word “baddel,” which meant “homosexual man.” Later it came to mean “worthless” in describing a person. Now it simply means, well, “bad.” \*\* The word ‘cretin’ derives from “Christian”. The word ‘hussy’ from “housewife”. It’s a well-worn path from acceptable term to insult. Words change their meaning, even as a result of pressures applied by PC behaviour. You can change what people say, but ultimately this can only have a passing influence on what they _think_. No matter how good the intentions. Who hasn’t heard a child being described as “special” with obvious quote marks? A PC word, but already a lost battle for its meaning in this context. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416/23 "2003-11-27T16:03:17Z")
Futile Gesture writes: \> The word ‘cretin’ derives from “Christian”. The word ‘hussy’ \> from “housewife”. It’s a well-worn path from acceptable term to \> insult. But those are terms that went along a quite different path from “bad.” “Cretin” started as an attempt to show that everyone, even those who were mentally retarded, were still children of God. Then the term “Christian” got worn down to “cretin” and devolved to meaning “barely acceptable to God” to finally meaning “pretty worthless.” “Hussy” also picked up a bad connotation because the implication was that woman trying to seduce your husband was no more than a housewife. “Bad” went through a completely different change. It started as meaning “effeminate homosexual,” then “worthless (as a person),” and then “bad (applied to anything).” What started as an insult got worn down into meaning no more than “bad.” I can’t see how you would describe that as going from “acceptable term to insult.” ---
**Author:** ![DeaganTheWolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DeaganTheWolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeaganTheWolf)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416/24 "2003-11-27T18:56:47Z")
: Slight Hijack: ``` Isn't this all a bit well, over-pc? Children have always been cruel; and will always find terms to use to insult one another. Just because certain adult groups find a term offensive, doesn't mean that we ought to ban certain words. Children being the contrary little turds that they are, will just use it more anyway. Let 'em use the terms, I don't care. ``` ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416/25 "2003-11-27T22:05:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Children being the contrary little turds that they are… I don’t know why, but this is cracking me right the hell up. Maybe all those Bother’s Grimm fairy tales where children suffer any number of horrors are a way of entertaining the adults as much as they were an attempt to instruct children about the indifference of existence? 😉 Kids are damned contrary. The good ones, anyway. I don’t trust people that don’t swear, and I fear for any teenager that doesn’t know everything. You can’t fall if you don’t leap. Eris bless 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416/26 "2003-11-29T17:18:06Z")
> [@](#): > > “Bad” went through a completely different change. It started as meaning “effeminate homosexual,” then “worthless (as a person),” and then “bad (applied to anything).” What started as an insult got worn down into meaning no more than “bad.” I can’t see how you would describe that as going from “acceptable term to insult.” So when Michael Jackson sang, “I’m bad, I’m bad…” 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-retarded-gay/214416.md?page=1)