Quoting Tom C <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > It's so silly isn't it. I'll go out of my way not offend someone with > words. But words have only one purpose and that's to communicate a > meaning. > If a word has a negative conotation (in some peoples minds) and another > word or phrase is substituted to describe the same thing, then that > substitute word or phrase will come to have the same conotation as the > prior.
Exactly -- and a good illustration is that, well before "retarded" the appropriate word was "idiot". But "idiot" became perjorative, so something else had to be used to be accurate but polite; then that became perjorative and so on, and so on ... ERNR
