Retarded

[Wilson Gray]

Yes, they do also use r-tard (no claim made as to "correct" spelling)
on South Park. I'm not hip to either WoW or 4chan ["Fortune"? It has a
punnish air about it.]. Never before even heard of "4chan," in fact.

-Wilson

On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 11:18 AM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>  Subject:      Re: Retarded
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>  On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 11:00 AM, Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at missouri.edu> wrote:
>  >
>  >  South Park also uses the variant 'artar' as in the classic World of Warcraft
>  >  episode. At least I assume this is a phonological variant or 'retard'.
>
>  More commonly spelled r-tard or /r/-tard, says Urbandictionary. The
>  latter spelling suggests a connection to the /r/ image board on the
>  4chan website. (4chan is said to be responsible for many Internet
>  memes, including "lolcats".)
>
>
>  --Ben Zimmer
>
>
>
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