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Child Item

What would be the most offensive word in the English language now?

NIMAN

From the last few years, I'd say it has to be the 'N' word.
(Afraid to type it in case it isn't censored properly on Boards and the Gardai come to arrest me).

It would likely have been the cnut word for many folk, but since I heard it a handful of times in the Oscar nominated 'The Favourite', it seems to be going mainstream.

I watched a news piece the other day about police racism in England since the Stephen Lawrence murder, and a black man actually said something like "back then walking down the street I would have been called the n word".

So its now so offensive that even black people aren't allowed to say the word when explaining a situation. Was this black man afraid that the internet would turn on him for using it??

Will we ever hear the full word uttered again, or is simply going to become "the n word".

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joe40

Deleted User wrote: »

sbsquarepants wrote: »

you can be called a bollox as a term of endearment, or sir as an insult!

Ah the genius at work....

Cina wrote: »

Context?

There are very few contexts where it's not an offensive word.

There is a massive difference in context between discussion of a word and _use_ of that word. Alas that is a difference in context the permanently offended/outraged appear to be intent on ignoring.

Tipping toeing around the word in the former context - or having university professors chased for their jobs for using it in that context - just shows how delicate our sensibilities are becoming. It is ridiculous. Not least because it gives a word more power than it should have. But also because it ignores context entirely.

I do love however when peoples delicate nature has them fly off the handle erroneously. The "controversy" over an American politician using the word "Niggardly" had me in stitches. That was seriously hilarious. Especially as it was a Black Guy who was triggered by the word.

But that is a context where I can use the word without it being offensive. I can talk about the phonetic similarities between niggardly and ******. I can talk about their pretty much entirely separate etymology. I can tell you where the word ****** came from. I can tell you where the word niggardly came from. And none of that is _actually_ offensive. Which of course is no reliable measure that someone will not fall over themselves to be offended anyway.

And I will not even bother to misspell it to intentionally bypass the pointless boards.ie curse-bot censor. We are all adults here. We know what word I am typing.

There is no problem using the word "******" in proper context. My daughter is doing to kill a mocking bird" for junior cert. That insult appears in the book and was discussed in class. Ono of my favorite films is Mississippi burning where the word is widely used.
Only a complete asshole though would still use that word in everyday speech nowadays given it history.

jimgoose

Wibbs wrote: »

From what I recall - and this could be way off to be fair - it comes from America of the 19th century when illiterate peasants showed up as immigrants they'd sign an X on any documents by way of a signature, but Jews(and Muslims) wouldn't because it was as they saw it the sign of the Cross, so they signed with a circle and again IIRC in either Yiddish, Hebrew or an Eastern European language(can't recall which) "circle" sounds something like "Kaickle" which became shortened to "Kike".

For a bonus points, present an etymology of "Front-Wheel" and "Fourby".

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

An official on the Washington City Council was once forced to resign because he used the word "niggardly" in a meeting. A black colleague stormed out of the meeting and accused him of racism. And you know how that goes.

Niggardly means miserly or tight-fisted. Nothing to do with the racial slur.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Alfonso Skinny Serfdom wrote: »

An official on the Washington City Council was once forced to resign because he used the word "niggardly" in a meeting. A black colleague stormed out of the meeting and accused him of racism. And you know how that goes.

Niggardly means miserly or tight-fisted. Nothing to do with the racial slur.

More fool him for resigning.

It's no his fault that the official who took offence is an ignoramus.

[Deleted User]

jimgoose wrote: »

To be perfectly honest with you Chief and with the best will in the world, I think you're stretching it a fair bit there. The word "gowl" isn't filtered either - that's a policy decision that enable attacks on people who exhibit vegan tendencies.

I'm not sure I see the connection between gowl and vegan:
https://www.dailyedge.ie/irish-slang-origins-1468945-May2014/

[Deleted User]

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

And gammon. Which you’ve used.

I thought it was a badge of honour tbh, but if it is offensive, then sure, ban it.

I'm still not clear why you would choose to protect people from race-based slurs and sexual preference slurs, but not protect people with disabilities.

Belle E. Flops

Calling someone 'sh1t craic' is about as insulting as you can get.

Franz Von Peppercorn

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I thought it was a badge of honour tbh, but if it is offensive, then sure, ban it.

Of course you didn’t think that. It’s a racist ageist term.

I'm still not clear why you would choose to protect people from race-based slurs and sexual preference slurs, but not protect people with disabilities.

I didn’t say anything about banning the term retard or not, I just mocked your wokeness as the self defined abled protector of the disabled. The white knight.

In generally calling someone a retard is a personal attack so it should be actionable. As with gammon.

However it doesn’t in fact, as a word itself, have the implications of the n word, which was always discriminatory. Retard was a shortened version of mental retardation which was itself a replacement for the once medical term idiot* which has become a playground insult. It then became an insult itself. That tends to happen.

Wouldn’t bother me it it were censored.

.* and imbecile, moron etc which were once medical terms. More here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_(pejorative)

Wibbs

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I thought it was a badge of honour tbh, but if it is offensive, then sure, ban it.

Ah sure while we're at it father, ban everything someone might find offensive. Be grand. And people wonder why we get heavy handed left/right/religious regimes from time to time? Wonder why Ireland was a suburb of the Vatican for so long? There is an endless queue of those who want to shrink how you think, positively or negatively, For Your Own Good™

[Deleted User]

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Of course you didn’t think that. It’s a racist ageist term.

I didn’t say anything about banning the term retard or not, I just mocked your wokeness as the self defined abled protector of the disabled. The white knight.

In generally calling someone a retard is a personal attack so it should be actionable. As with gammon.

However it doesn’t in fact, as a word itself, have the implications of the n word, which was always discriminatory. Retard was a shortened version of mental retardation which was itself a replacement for the once medical term idiot* which has become a playground insult. It then became an insult itself. That tends to happen.

Wouldn’t bother me it it were censored.

.* and imbecile, moron etc which were once medical terms. More here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_(pejorative)

Does mocking not breach the 'attack the post, not the poster' rule?

As for the word itself, it has certainly had a different background and evolution to the N word. I don't see the relevance of that to the decision to block or not block the word today.

As it stands today, every time the word is used casually in a negative manner "That's retarded", it reinforces negative stigma for people with intellectual disabilities.

If we're going to ban race slurs and sexuality slurs, we should be offering the same level of protection to people with intellectual disabilities.

[Deleted User]

Wibbs wrote: »

Ah sure while we're at it father, ban everything someone might find offensive. Be grand. And people wonder why we get heavy handed left/right/religious regimes from time to time? Wonder why Ireland was a suburb of the Vatican for so long? There is an endless queue of those who want to shrink how you think, positively or negatively, For Your Own Good™

Ban everything or ban nothing. But why choose to ban racial slurs and sexual preference slurs, but not slurs against people with intellectual disabilities?

bodhrandude

orourkeda1977 wrote: »

mongtard

That would be more describing a stoner though would it not.

AllForIt

To those who used the N word in this thread - you should be ashamed of yourselves. How dare you insult Negros in that way.

Panthro

Moist

[Deleted User]

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Ban everything or ban nothing. But why choose to ban racial slurs and sexual preference slurs, but not slurs against people with intellectual disabilities?

People over in Aviation forum need to use Retard. It's a word with meaning and you can't just ban it.

And your use of logic is dismal at best. Pathetic actually.

pauldla

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Cheers Wibbs, very interesting.

Another good one is WOP, an abbreviation of 'Without Papers.' Was initially used for both Irish and Italian immigrants but became more commonly associated with just the Italians as time moved on.

As a general rule of thumb, if you see an explanation that references an acronym (e.g. 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge', or, as in this case 'Without Papers') for a term that predates the late 20th century, then the explanation probably isn't true. 'Wop' most likely comes from the Italian 'guappo' meaning showy, or a dandy.

s7ryf3925pivug

‘Whom’ when used incorrectly. Nobody cares if you say who when it should be whom, but doing the opposite is like screaming ‘I’m a pillock!’ ...Of course using ‘whom’ correctly is a polite way of reminding people how smart you are.

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

People over in Aviation forum need to use Retard. It's a word with meaning and you can't just ban it.

And your use of logic is dismal at best. Pathetic actually.

Do you think that forum would collapse overnight if they had to use "the r word" in the same way that this discussion used "the n word"? Or could they use a synonym?

You'd be amazed at what people can do when they put their minds to it.

Again, why would you block slurs aimed at certain groups, but not at people with intellectual disabilities?

[Deleted User]

joe40 wrote: »

There is no problem using the word "******" in proper context. My daughter is doing to kill a mocking bird" for junior cert. That insult appears in the book and was discussed in class. Ono of my favorite films is Mississippi burning where the word is widely used.

I wish everyone realised that however. Philip Adamo of Augsburg College who received “Minnesota Professor of the Year” and was active recruiting and retaining students of colour in the campus was still ousted and last I heard was on medical leave because of uproar of him discussing the word _in context_ while discussing the book "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin.

We also have redacted editions of Twain’s work that replace the n-word with terms like "slave" like in Huckleberry Finn.

But who am I to say. I just know I will not be told when I can or can not use the word. I think my algorithm for that is healthy and considered and measured. When it comes time to read those particular books with my own children - I will be using the original text.

One eyed Jack

OMM 0000 wrote: »

This is too painful, so it's going to be my last comment.

No one is denying the disabled have faced issues.

No one is denying calling a disabled person "retard" to their face is offensive and terrible.

Let's do a comparison with black people.

From the mid 1700s to the mid 1800s, black folk in the US had almost no rights. You could buy and sell them. You could kill them. You could call them n*igger and look down on them.

The disabled did not face the same issues. Obviously it was terrible to be disabled back then, but you were at least, relatively free, and weren't bought and sold.

The reason people with disabilities weren’t bought and sold was because they were generally considered not just of no value, but an actual drain on society, and so they were often institutionalised in perpetual slavery and subjected to all sorts of experimentation and maltreatment, and because they weren’t considered human beings, but rather an abomination of nature, the concept of human rights simply didn’t apply to them until very recently in our history.

The word retard was used until very recently (roughly 10 years ago) to describe people who are mentally disabled. It has only very recently become a slang insult word.

It was used to replace words like imbecile and idiot in the 60’s and 70’s, and almost immediately became a pejorative insult. I don’t know how old you are but here is n Ireland at least in the 80’s I can remember having to correct people on their use of the term, by telling them “I’m not retarded, I have dyslexia, there’s a difference”, basically one of us was stupid, but it wasn’t me.

Many people in society regularly use the word retard, as they do not consider it particularly offensive. This include on boards.ie.

Almost no one says n*gger. This is because it is universally accepted to be highly offensive due to it's long history of being a horrible word.

As many people use the word retard as use the word ******. That is to say, there really aren’t that many people who use either word nowadays. It’s got fcukall to do with whether or not the word causes offence any more, the whole reason they’ve fallen out of use is because they aren’t considered offensive enough any more, much like the word bastard has fallen out of use to refer to someone of questionable parentage. Can’t remember where I heard it but “son of a thousand fathers” stopped me in my tracks :pac:

So we have a few hundred years of n*gger being a horrible word, and roughly 10 years of retard being a somewhat horrible word.

If you try to think this through for a second, and drop the emotion, you will see that clearly n*gger is considered a worse word.

Seriously, why do I need to explain this. This sort of basic logic should be simple for everyone.

Drop the emotion? How about you drop the bull****? Retard has been used for centuries in the english language, comes from Latin, meaning ‘slow’. It’s never been a competition to determine which word is worse is the word that shouldn’t be used, but rather which word conveys the intended meaning in what that person imagines is the most offensive way. You’re also in no position to lament other people’s use of basic logic when your own use appears to be as absent as your knowledge of human history, society and culture.

[Deleted User]

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Do you think that forum would collapse overnight if they had to use "the r word" in the same way that this discussion used "the n word"? Or could they use a synonym?

You'd be amazed at what people can do when they put their minds to it.

Again, why would you block slurs aimed at certain groups, but not at people with intellectual disabilities?

Why should they use "the r word" exactly, when the word is Retard?

List what you think should be banned. I'm struggling to think of slurs against people with learning disabilities that aren't actual words. If you can think of words like "the n word" etc. that only have one awful meaning, then yeah, you can post in the Site Development forum. No one will miss words like that.

fatknacker

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

I disagree a lot of people do not even understand the meaning of the word spastic.
People use the word spa to mean fool, stupid person etc.
I remember a girl who is very PC referred to a fella with Cerebral Palsy 'your a spa' (her meaning - thick/eejit) not realising it's true meaning. But he just replied 'I know'.
I am not sure she understood the joke!

As regards the retard one. I was on the bus before and a fella with Downs Syndrome was chatting to another fella with Downs Syndrome.
One fella got off the bus. The other fella says out loud to himself '****ing retard!'

It is all about context and use of words.
What is dangerous is others deciding what other groups should find offensive! Then getting offended on thier behalf.

Words change meaning all the time. There used to be legislation years ago called 'Idiots Act 1886'
It refers to idiots,imbeciles and lunatics. Now these words are in common usage. No one gives them a second thought.
Even the like of Kevin Kilbane who has a Downs Sydrome child gets very offended when he hears the word mong. Yet he uses the words moron, idiot, lunatic regularly.

This a million times

Sorry about that

Article by Teri Mauro, October 2018

Eliminating the R-Word from Law and Medicine
As advocates began to work at changing the medical terminology, Rosa's Law was passed in 2010 to eliminate all references to mental retardation in U.S. federal law, replacing it with the term mental disability and "an individual with an intellectual disability."

New terminology was also adopted for the DSM-5 in 2013 and in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2015, replacing mental retardation with intellectual developmental disorders and intellectual disability.

You may find yourself challenged when you use the older term in a medical or legal sense without meaning it as an offense.

Protesting Use of the R-Word in Media and Entertainment
Protests over the use of the R-word in the movie Tropic Thunder grew into a movement to remove those words from common speech. Special Olympics started a campaign at r-word.org asking people to pledge to stop using the R-word, with a particular push in March of every year to "Spread the Word to End the Word." The site offers resources for those who wish to encourage others to take the pledge.

Lauren Potter, an actress with Down syndrome who played cheerleader Becky on Glee, made a PSA denouncing the R-word that can be seen along with many other videos on R-word.org's YouTube channel.

Elimination of the R-Word
Though many folks who defend the use of the R-word claim that such efforts mean "you can't say anything anymore," there are in fact many less-offensive words that work as substitutions. Check the list of 225 options to make your speech more varied and less hurtful.

And still, some posters here will continue to angrily defend their right to use the term. They will sneer at a turn of phrase that might be emotive, or less verbose than they are capable of. Energies that could be used for good.

sligojoek

Is it OK to go in the motoring forum and ask someone how to retard or indeed advance the timing of the ignition?

OMM 0000

One eyed Jack wrote: »

Drop the emotion? How about you drop the bull****? Retard has been used for centuries in the english language, comes from Latin, meaning ‘slow’. It’s never been a competition to determine which word is worse is the word that shouldn’t be used, but rather which word conveys the intended meaning in what that person imagines is the most offensive way. You’re also in no position to lament other people’s use of basic logic when your own use appears to be as absent as your knowledge of human history, society and culture.

Alright buddy, retard is equal or worse to n-gger. Strange how almost the entire world disagrees with you, but you know best of course. Everyone is stupid, right?

Bigbagofcans

I discovered recently that you can't use 'half-caste' anymore as this is seen as offensive.

If 'knacker' is decided to be out outlawed, I'm leaving the country.

sligojoek

If the electricity goes off these days it's an "Outage". Whatever happened to "Blackout"?

animaal

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

If you're going to ban some words, why would you not add retard to that list?

You may choose to believe that the Boards moderators have no problem with insults to people with disabilities. I choose to believe that Boards decides not to ban words that have some valid use in today's world.

I don't think the words themselves are the problem, I think it's the degree to which the speaker intends to hurt/insult.

"Retard" has a number of uses, most of which are not meant in an insulting way. As mentioned before, in aviation, plus perhaps "fire-retardant". I'm sure there are others.

And for both that word and "the 'N' word", I do think the intent is what's important. And that can't be automatically filtered.

I should be able to be able to use "the 'N' word" in a number of contexts - e.g. to quote an older literary work, or to debate use of the world in today's world. Neither use is me attempting to insult anybody.

On the other hand, banning a word just leads to other proxy words in their stead. If you ban these words, and people instead start more widely using insults such as "spook" or "golliwog" or "mongoloid", are we any better off? It's the intent that's the problem.

One eyed Jack

OMM 0000 wrote: »

Alright buddy, retard is equal or worse to n-gger. Strange how almost the entire world disagrees with you, but you know best of course. Everyone is stupid, right?

The entire world? Jesus don’t you have a high opinion of yourself. I take it then you’re not familiar with other cultures which use the word ****** as casually as they refer to another man as their brother? They mean it in terms of the bond between them as opposed to using the term in the pejorative sense.

As bizarre as it may seem to you, I’ve had some people refer to me using the term ****** (as opposed to wigger, which is a term for someone who isn’t a ****** but idealises the concept in their own head), which honestly made me cringe every time for them, not because I found the word offensive, but simply because, well, I’m white! It just makes no sense in any content for a person to greet me as their ******.

If you imagine your opinions represent the views of the entire world, I would suggest familiarising yourself with popular culture and a show called Power - ****** this, ****** that, my ******, your ******, **** handling their business... it’s choc-a-bloc full of the word ****** from start to finish, and it’s received critical acclaim :pac:

(It’s not the worst show, it’s alright, but at least I don’t have myself convinced the whole world agrees with me either :rolleyes:)

Sorry about that

sligojoek wrote: »

Is it OK to go in the motoring forum and ask someone how to retard or indeed advance the timing of the ignition?

Of course Joe. That's a benign use of the word, unrelated to the dated and now insulting version of the word which was used from the1960's to describe a person with a learning disability.

Good luck with your car repairs.