[Ads-l] "Oppressive Language List"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sun, Jun 27, 2021 at 2:44 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Jun 27, 2021, at 12:09 PM, Mailbox <mailbox at GRAMMARPHOBIA.COM> wrote:
> >> On Sat, 26 Jun 2021 06:48:02 -0400,  Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>
> >>
> https://www.brandeis.edu/parc/accountability/oppressivelanguagelist.html
> >
> > OK, one comment. Included is “rule of thumb” (
> https://www.brandeis.edu/parc/accountability/oppressivelanguagelist_violent.html
> <
> https://www.brandeis.edu/parc/accountability/oppressivelanguagelist_violent.html>)
> which has been vilified as politically incorrect since the mid-1970s, when
> it was said to have originated as a legal term for what was allowed in
> wife-beating.
>
> Well, they do concede this etymythology “allegedly” derives from the
> (faulty) source they repeat, which is debunked in many places.  Surprised
> they don’t include “picnic” and “niggardly", which allegedly have racist
> origins (from different fabricated sources).
>

 "Picnic" was in fact on an earlier version of the list but has since been
removed. From the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210623023734/https://www.brandeis.edu/parc/accountability/oppressivelanguagelist_violent.html

I see it's been replaced on the list by "wife beater."

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