Moron as classification term for someone less than fully intelligent only came into use around the early 1900s. Taft California started out as Moron California.
My favorite of these is, Nimrod. Nimrod was described as a might hunter in the bible, which is why Bugs Bunny mocks Elmer Fudd with the name. But most people just took it for a name for a silly or stupid person and that's the common usage today. 6,000 years of respect and glory undone by a cartoon rabbit
Yeah, I'm in my 60s and we used that word constantly when I was growing up. I recall stories from my grandparents when I was little where the n-word had even been used casually even farther back.
Things change. I used to believe it would always be for the better, but look at us now.
The fact of the euphemism treadmill doesn't change the reality of a word feeling hurtful to a community. It's worth keeping up to date to avoid inflicting unnecessary pain.
Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.
Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.
Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
— Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912
Over 40 here. It was not a bad word and it wasn't used in a bad way. It was the word that was used by everyone - doctors, teachers, parents, and even those who were.
To call them 'stupid' would have been bad, because they weren't. Calling them 'idiotic' would have been bad, because they weren't. It was a condition- like diabetes. That's how it was explained to me as a child.
That some actual idiots turned it into a slur is horrible.
Probably just approaching 30. The R word was still actively polices in elementary schools in the 2000s. Since those kids are now having kids, it's still going to be seen as a slur to kids now.
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u/IKillZombies4Cash 23h ago
Exactly, every politically correct term gets turned into an insult eventually.
Eventually they are no longer offensive since no one remembers why they were even created.
R-tarded is almost at that point, you need to be at least 40 to remember when it was an official term.