This is retarded.

[Jack]

When did the word "retarded" stop meaning "mentally challenged" and start meaning something that was a strange mixture of funny and negative?

The other day one my professors told a student that she was retarded.

I even find myself using the word "retarded" in the aforementioned sense but I can not remember the meaning ever changing. Has anybody else noticed this?

[fearfaoin]

I've been hearing this since the late 90's, though political correctness
keeps it out of mainstream media, so I'm not surprised if it's taking
awhile to spread nationally... I'm surprised that PC considerations
would not keep a professor from using it. Usually, I've heard it used
to describe ideas or situations, and not people...

e.g, "Man, that Starburst commercial was retarded!"

I have also heard "gay" used this way.

In the way that "bad" and, more recently, "stupid" have been
de-negativized, I wouldn't be surprised if these terms eventually
enjoyed a positive meaning for a short while.

[Martin Milner]

It's what happens when a perfectly valid word to describe a condition is repeatedly used as an insult.

The word comes to be insulting, and has to be replaced. e.g. Spastic.

[susnfx]

The word "ignorant" is used (or used to be) in some parts of Utah to mean rude or mean rather than lacking knowledge...as when perhaps someone insults you, you'd say, "You are so ignorant!" Don't hear it too often any more, but it was used very commonly in southern Utah when I was growing up.

Susan

[Jack]

I've been hearing this since the late 90's, though political correctness
keeps it out of mainstream media, so I'm not surprised if it's taking
awhile to spread nationally... I'm surprised that PC considerations
would not keep a professor from using it.

I am too. He also says "ƒuck" and other nonprofessional words in class though. He's from Georgia, if that matters.

[Flyingcursor]

The word "ignorant" is used (or used to be) in some parts of Utah to mean rude or mean rather than lacking knowledge...as when perhaps someone insults you, you'd say, "You are so ignorant!" Don't hear it too often any more, but it was used very commonly in southern Utah when I was growing up.

Susan

I believe Barbara used "ignorant" in that sense when berating her brother Johnny just before they were attacked by a zombie in Night of the Living Dead.

"There coming to get you Barbara."
"Stop it Johnny. You're ignorant."

Tyler, help me out here.

[Joseph E. Smith]

I've been hearing the word retarded in the negative sense since the late 1960s... I'm sure it goes a ways back from there.

Personally, I have never liked its use to describe people of a halted or reduced capacity for emotional and intellectual development.

[Wanderer]

In the way that "bad" and, more recently, "stupid" have been
de-negativized, I wouldn't be surprised if these terms eventually
enjoyed a positive meaning for a short while.

Already happening..in rap, "get retarded" and "get stupid" already is starting to take on the meaning of "party hard core" (as in the Black Eyed Peas song "Let's Get Retarded"). Also, in the same scene "stupid" is being added to positive adjectives in the way "mad" or "hella" once was (as in "did you hear that new BEP album? It's stupid fresh")
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... upid+fresh

[fearfaoin]

Already happening..in rap, "get retarded" and "get stupid" already is starting to take on the meaning of "party hard core"

Yes, this is what I was referring to when I said that "stupid" had been
recently de-negativized...

"Retarded" is still too un-PC to be mainstream, though, since BEP had
to change the lyrics to "Let's Get it Started" to get it on the radio

[avanutria]

"Retard" was the insult of choice among the bullies at my middle school in midstate New York, 1992, with the emphasis on the first syllable. They would also make reference to needing the "short bus", also in an insulting manner.

Cultural note for non-Americans - many school districts have a special school bus that will pick up special needs students. They are usually wheelchair accessible and have a couple of extra staff members on board. SInce they're designed to hold fewer students, they are shorter than a regular school bus (about half the length) but otherwise are built and decorated as normal. Hence the insult implied in being told you belong on the "short bus".

[emmline]

"Retard" was the insult of choice among the bullies at my middle school in midstate New York, 1992, with the emphasis on the first syllable. They would also make reference to needing the "short bus", also in an insulting manner.

This is very familiar to me, and as JES said, it predates Beth by a few years.

The rude 14 year olds in my carpool throw around the word "gay," in exactly the contexts suggested here--as a general purpose slur, without any real reference to sexual orientation.

[Innocent Bystander]

It's not in use in the UK, or at least, not as far as I've heard.
I did come across "Gay" as a term of abuse on Gunbound a few years ago. (Gunbound was an internet computer game site based in Singapore. Good game. Some of the players were right little stinkers.)

In fact using the term "retard" in the UK would mark you as an American (if it wasn't already obvious).

[jsluder]

"Retard" was the insult of choice among the bullies at my middle school in midstate New York, 1992, with the emphasis on the first syllable. They would also make reference to needing the "short bus", also in an insulting manner.

This is very familiar to me, and as JES said, it predates Beth by a few years.

Yup. That was very common when I was growing up.

[Jack]

In fact using the term "retard" in the UK would mark you as an American (if it wasn't already obvious).

It's not just Americans. Canadians are retards too.

[Redwolf]

In our choir, the term "ritard" is sure to get a giggle out of the younger members.

I once got a piece of music that someone else had marked up, and at the cadenza that person had penciled in "a great big REE-tard"!

Redwolf