[Ads-l] libtard (8 August 2004), conservatard (24 August 2000)

[Laurence Horn]

> On Oct 30, 2018, at 9:24 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I’ve always been curious if the term “Retard” (Republican + retard) is used as a counter to “libtard,” but after about a minute of superficial Googling, it seems it’s not.

I’d imagine “reptard” as a more likely blend, given that “retard” has a salient non-blend interpretation that would pre-empt the one you have in mind.  “Reptard” does occur, but not that widely.  I’ve more often seen “rethuglican” or just “rethug”.

LH
> 
> While the English OLD (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/libtard <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/libtard>) has libtard, it does not list “conservatard,” which is given on Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conservatard <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conservatard>) and Urban Dictionary (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=conservatard <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=conservatard>) with a bonus spelling of “conservitard” (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Conservitard <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Conservitard>).
> 
> Neither are in the HDAS or Merriam-Webster.
> 
> Datings:
> 
> Libtard
> The OLD has “early 21st century”.
> Wiktionary has a 2006 citation. 
> 
> The earliest I found is 8 August 2004:
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/%22libtard%22$20before$3A2004$2F08$2F09/soc.culture.laos/sYr8Tu7JG9Y/W1zyKpniGykJ <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/"libtard"$20before$3A2004$2F08$2F09/soc.culture.laos/sYr8Tu7JG9Y/W1zyKpniGykJ>
> Her Lao
> 
> ——
> LOL,,, more falsified "Libtard" sudo "facts":
> ——
> 
> Conservatard
> Wiktionary has a 24 August 2000 citation.
> The UD has 2005. 
> 
> I looked on Google’s Usenet search but could not antedate this.
> 
> I used https://groups.google.com/ <https://groups.google.com/> with a query such as: "conservatard" before:2002/08/25. It did not find the Wiktionary citation, so Google must not index all the Usenet groups.
> 
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org