Retarded

[David Donnell]

I worked with "the [mentally] retarded" for some years, in a past life...

A co-worker, a Kentucky native, once told me his brother referred to
them as "retreads".

Myself, I use "retarded" as a pejorative term far too much. Ex: the
other day, in my impatience, I was trying to pass a guy on the
sidewalk and thought, "What are you, retarded?" I had a sudden twinge
of guilt imagining that the person might actually have been,
technically, retarded... I tend to see my own use of that word as a
character flaw in myself.

Alas, I'm also partial to "fucktard".

The most recent official terminology I knew for the mentally
retarded, from the mid-90s, was "M.R./D.D.", short for "mentally
retarded/developmentally disabled". And I think the trend was towards
just "D.D." or "developmentally disabled"... unfortunate since (a)
less specific and (b) more difficult for retarded folks themselves to
pronounce.

DD
Missourian @ NYC

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>Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>Subject:      Re: Retarded (UNCLASSIFIED)
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>And now, 'tard is a suffix in many insulting names:  fucktard,
>Republitard, asstard, etc.
>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: American Dialect Society
>>  [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
>>  Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 7:24 AM
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  Subject: Re: Retarded
>>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Retarded
>>  --------------------------------------------------------------
>>  -----------------
>>
>>  South Park clipped it to 'tard years ago and, as you would
>>  expect, if you're familiar with the show, it's applied to people.
>>
>>  -Wilson
>>
>>  On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 6:28 PM, Scot LaFaive
>>  <scotlafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
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>>  >  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  >  Poster:       Scot LaFaive <scotlafaive at GMAIL.COM>
>>  >  Subject:      Retarded
>>  >
>>  >
>>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > ---------
>>  >
>>  >  I'd like to get other people's impressions on this adjective.
>>  > Personally, I  use the word often but only when referring
>>  to inanimate
>>  > objects, not people  or animals. It basically means "inane" or
>>  > "idiotic" to me. I'm interested in  whether this adjective
>>  is becoming
>>  > more an impersonal descriptor and if  others also have
>>  moved away from using it on people and animals.
>>  >
>>  >  Scot
>>  >
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>>  --
>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
>>  complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
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>>                                                -Sam'l Clemens
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