I have trouble keeping up with some of these words. Some that were just not polite in my youth 50 years ago have been reclaimed and are now the preferred term while others have stayed out of use. I even go back far enough to be of the generation who used gay to mean happy, I had friends (who were sisters) called Gay and Joy.
My particular dislikes as insults are spaz (spastic) and cretin. And how long does it take for an insult to spread? What is your opinion of "special" as an insult, has it spread far enough to begin to restrict the wider meanings?
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Date: 2011-02-03 10:58 pm (UTC)I have trouble keeping up with some of these words. Some that were just not polite in my youth 50 years ago have been reclaimed and are now the preferred term while others have stayed out of use. I even go back far enough to be of the generation who used gay to mean happy, I had friends (who were sisters) called Gay and Joy.
My particular dislikes as insults are spaz (spastic) and cretin. And how long does it take for an insult to spread? What is your opinion of "special" as an insult, has it spread far enough to begin to restrict the wider meanings?