tarded

[Jonathan Lighter]

Users of this word need to be de-tarded.

JL

On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: tarded
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Nov 3, 2012, at 9:56 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > This means "stupid." Whether it's an attempted euphemism for "retarded"
> or
> > just teen fun with words is beyond my ken.
>
> Maybe either a back-formation, on the assumption that "retarded" involves
> the "re" = 'again' prefix, or a derivation from the (truncated) noun
> "tard"?  (Many thousands of G-hits for "he's such a tard")/
>
> LH
>
> >
> > 2006
> >
> http://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Love-War-James-Hillman/product-reviews/0143034928/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0
> > :To single out Christianity as war mongers is tarded, the whole world is
> > and has been into wars.
> >
> > Many thousands of G-hits.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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