Retard
retard /0rɪˈtɑ:d, in sense 3 0ˈri:tɑ:d/ noun. L18.
[ORIGIN French, from retarder: see retard verb.]
1 Retardation, delay. L18. ▸ b = retardation 2b(b). rare. M19.
T. Jefferson A single day’s retard.
in retard retarded, delayed; in retard of, behind (lit. & fig.).
2 In a motor vehicle, an adjustment for retarding the ignition spark. M20.
3 A person with learning difficulties. Also used as a term of abuse. offensive. L20.
Ummm…this is from the Oxford English Dictionary v.6. If I say something you’re doing is “fucking retarded” it means that you are slow to get it. You are delayed. You do not do it fast enough. (see def. one). If I am pointing at a person who is mentally challenged and calling them a “retard” see definition number three.
It’s funny because I have made this case for years to the chagrin of people around me that I love. You can be a retard and it means nothing about definition three unless you really have gone off your rocker of being politically correct. This is the OED6 folks. You are slow. You retard an engine. You retard an idea. People that are slow and idle are retards.
And in some cases, they are “fucking retards.”
Crap…this has gotten too crazy if you can’t say that the democrats are acting retarded. What dictionary are we using? What language? Seriously…it’s fallen this much that my stupid fight for 20 years that people are slow and called “fucking retarded” is really a political hot button?
This all began for me when I said someone was acting “niggardly” about paying a bill in a restaurant for a group. This is about 20 years ago. I used it. I was taught it. It was not racist.
niggard /0ˈnɪgəd/ noun, adjective, & verb. LME.
[ORIGIN Alt. of nigon by suffix-substitution of -ard.]
► A noun.
1 A mean, stingy, or parsimonious person; a miser; a person who grudgingly parts with, spends, or uses up anything. (Foll. by of.) LME.
2 A movable piece of iron or firebrick placed in the side or bottom of a grate to save fuel. Also niggard iron. dial. L17.
► B adjective. Now literary.
1 = niggardly adjective 1. LME.
†2 = niggardly adjective 2. LME–L16.
► †C verb. rare.
1 verb intrans. & trans. (with it). Act in a niggardly fashion. L16–E17.
2 verb trans. Be sparing or niggardly of. L16–E17.
3 verb trans. Put off with a small amount of something; treat in a niggardly fashion. Only in E17.
†niggardise noun [-ise¹] niggardliness E16–L19. niggardize verb (rare) †(a) verb intrans. & trans. (with it) be niggardly; (b) verb trans. give in a niggardly fashion: E17. niggardness noun (now rare) niggardliness L15.
I about got my head bitten off! It “sounded” bad.
I could go on, but I am not the William F. Buckley of language. The point is that it’s stupid to not be able to call you a “fucking retard” without having it have some big political fall out. That’s fucking retarded. The niggards are using it as political capital for false purposes by grabbing it in for their own.