From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Cats'n'Dogs
Date: 15 Oct 92 06:27:47 GMT
Reply-To: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Distribution: alt
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.  Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <Bw4nL8.6rG@cck.coventry.ac.uk>, Kay Dekker writes:


>>                EUPHEMISM                       TRANSLATION
>>                ---------                       -----------
>>                physically handicapped,         crippled

>Not quite equivalent.  I *am* physically handicapped by my poor hearing
>and my arthritis, but am not yet crippled.  When I become so, I shall
>so describe myself.

It's a matter of common usage.  On this side of the pond, the two terms
are generally interchangeable, e.g., many buildings are being made
"accessible to the handicapped" by the installation of wheelchair ramps
and such.  

------

>>                emotionally handicapped         crazy

>Again, a weaker and a stronger term: most men are emotionally
>handicapped, but not all of them are crazy.  Not all...

Same deal as above, albeit in lesser degree.

------

>>                mentally handicapped,           mentally retarded

>Pretty much equivalent, in my book.

Yeah, mine too.  But there are many who go to elaborate lengths to avoid
the dreaded R-word.

------

>>                developmentally disabled,

>Mealy-mouthed.

To the max.

------

>>                "special"
>
>Meaningless (semantically challenged?)

"Special" has been a euphemism for "mentally retarded" over here for years;
the name "Special Olympics" is a good example.  The term is also common in 
elementary education, with many schools having "special" classes for those 
with Down's syndrome or lesser <heh> learning disabilities.  

------

>
>>                vitally handicapped             dead

>This is a joke, no?

Yeah.  I threw in a few, just to liven things up.

------

>>                hearing impaired                deaf ("Haah?")
>>                visually impaired               blind

>My first point again; I'm hearing-impaired (or, as I usually put
>it, partially deaf), but not yet deaf.

"Partially" is the key word.  Deafness and blindness are matters of degree;
one can be partially or completely blind or deaf.

------

>>                chemical dependency             drug addiction
>>                substance abuse                 drug abuse

>These merely avoid the loaded term "drug"; certainly where I come
>from, tranquilisers (for instance) are regarded as "medicine", 
>whereas crack is a "drug".  GPs have to be very careful if asking
>patients whether they are taking any drugs: patients can get quite
>indignant.

The use of unnecessarily loaded terms is what annoys me.  The term "drug,"
for example, shouldn't *be* loaded, because it doesn't necessarily imply
only illegal and/or recreational drugs.  The problem isn't with the word,
but with people's ignorance.  It's similar to the way the common abbreviation
"VD," for "veneral disease" has been largely supplanted by "STD" for "sex-
ually transmitted disease."  They mean the same thing, but a lot of ignorant
people evidently don't know what "venereal" means, so the terminology was
geared down to their level.  I can understand the rationale on a public
health level, but it still annoys me in principle.

------

>>                affectional preference          sexual orientation

>Avoids the specicifity of "sex"; for example, my friend Jamie has said
>that he could easily fall in love with a man, but couldn't bring himself
>to have sex with him.  He has an affectional preference for men, but
>is not sexually orientated towards them.

He doesn't have an affectional *preference* for men unless he's more
easily attracted to men romantically than to women.  "Preference" has
stronger implications than just the hypothetical possibility of affection.

In the States, where many companies are adopting gay rights clauses,
there's been a certain amount of semantic debate over such terms.  My
position is that it's needless splitting of hairs.

------

>>                the homeless                    bums

>You can be homeless without being a bum.  I was.

Quite true.  Over here, most homeless people *are* bums, at least in my
area.  By that I don't mean that they're evil, but that they live a
scavenger's lifestyle.

------

>>                people of color                 colored people

>Crazy.  Both of these are crazy.  We're *all* coloured.

Agreed, most definitely.  But watch the sparks fly when you carelessly
use the latter term!

------

>>		person of species 		animal

>This is a joke, no?

Barely.  Some of the animal rights wackos wouldn't think so.  Personally,
I think it's hilarious.

------

>>                vertically impaired             short

>As is this?

Yup.

------

>>                the elderly,                    old people
>>                "seniors"
>>                (formerly "senior citizens",
>>                as opposed to 12th graders)

>You know, I'd rather be old.  Actually, I'd prefer to be "venerable".

How about "wizened?"  (That word always makes me think of shrivelled apples.)

------

>>                food server or waitperson       waitress (otherwise simply
>>                                                "waiter")

>"Waiter" does fine for me.

What if the waiter's a female, though?  She'd be a waitress, of course,
but that sticks in the collective craw of some of the more PC among us.

------

>>		firefighter			fireman
>
>As does "firefighter".

I don't mind "firefighter" terribly much, in itself.  But a male firefighter
is a fireman, and it irritates me that my newspaper insists on using the
gender-neutral term in all cases.  It's a petty thing to institute an
editorial policy change over.

------

>>                -person (suffix)                -woman
>>                (e.g., "spokesperson")

>Usually satirical; always silly.  "Speaker" is what I generally use.

The point is that the gender-neutral term is usually only used when the
person in question is a woman, otherwise the traditional term "chairman"
is used.  I find this rather humorous.

------

>>                custodian                       janitor

>I've never seen "custodian" used in this sense.

It's an Amurrican thing.  It's supposed to make the job sound more 
respectable.

------

>>                passed away                     died

>A venerable euphemism.

Quite.

------

>>                person with AIDS (PWA)          AIDS victim

>Seems sensible.  

Ooh, don't say that in San Francisco!

------

>>                "battling" a disease            dying from a disease
>
>Depends on whether it's battleable or not, I'd say.

Usually used in terms of cancer, which usually isn't.

------

>>                sensitive 90's male             wimp

>Can't wimps be female also?

Sure, but you're looking at it backwards; the translation is for the
former term, not the latter:  Not all wimps are sensitive 90s males,
but all s.n.m's are wimps.

------

>My favourite - and I insist that the person using it must have been
>doing so with tongue stuck firmly in cheek - came when I described
>myself in email as "clumsy".  Well, I am: and so I've always described
>myself.  "Oh no," came the reply, "you mustn't say 'clumsy'; you must
>say 'differently kinetically enabled' instead".

Jesus H. Christ on a Jetski!  Where will it end?


Geoff


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Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM  + + + + + + + +     Menlo Park, California
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From: kingsley@hpwrce.mayfield.hp.com (Kingsley Morse)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 23:53:01 GMT
Subject: Please Help
Organization: HP Western Response Center