Quote:
Originally Posted by -jimi-
Just for fun, the word idiot was from the beginning not slander or a bad word. By that time's vocabulary, a moron was slightly retarded, an imbecile moderately retarded and an idiot severely retarded. The original meaning of idiot was layman or unskilled. This word which was rather nice and harmless came in use, and after using it for MR, it turned into the bad word it is today.
Strange aint it?
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Reminds me of the word 'Spastic'. It was used (and still is for some conditions where it has no pejorative implications) to describe people with cerebral palsy. In the UK in 1951 the Spastics Society was founded to aide people with the condition. Then during the 80's and 90's it became more widely used as in insult to imply somebody was stupid or physically impaired in some way and eventually it was dropped by the charity and from common medical use when dealing with the condition. I was in primary school when that change occurred. I remember a lot of the other kids my age used the word regularly at the time.
Sadly, it's not about the words. It's about the narrow-minded society we live in where anything other than the 'ordinary' is deemed as unacceptable and thus something open to ridicule.