Talk:Retard (pejorative)

Time Frames for Origin and Use

I have been looking through the sources cited in the article and can find no source that dates the use of "retard" as a noun as any earlier than 1668 despite the fact that both this article and the one on Intellectual Disability date it at 1426. I will have to evaluate that other article and see if there is a reference that supports this date. Merriam Webster, which is the first citation in this article, is the source for the 1668 date. I found another source, Online Etymology Dictionary (via Dictionary.com), which mentions an earlier existence for the verb form, 15th century or 13th century, but goes on to state that the first record of the noun form is 1788. This argues that we either need a source for the 1426 date or to reference the origin as uncertain with a couple of dueling dates, neither of which is 1426.

The reference that describes the switch to mental retardation as a term for what we now call intellectually disabled is cited from an article where this is a side issue, and is further cited there from another article. It might be wise to find that source as a more valid one than an article whose prime focus is the effect the use of the word and derivatives of the word have when used on YouTube. My point is that it isn't an article on how the word's use developed over time, though that is glancingly covered in the article, it's about its current use.

The reasoning listed for the switch from previous terminology to mental retardation is incomplete and implies that it was about choosing new words to refer to intellectually disabled people, which is not strictly true. This section needs to be cleaned up a bit.

The article states baldly. "Retard was not used to refer to mentally disabled people until 1985." There is no source cited and none of the sources in the list support it. This statement is what spurred my research into this article's validity. I know for absolute fact from my own direct experience that it was used derogatorily as early as 1976 and anecdotally that it was used as early as 1974. This is not supportable by evidence, it's what I encountered in school, but it made me start looking. From Online Etymology Dictionary (via Dictionary.com), I learned that its use as a derogatory term for the intellectually disabled dates to 1970. It offers variants on the term such as "retardate (1956)" and "retardee (1971)". The Dictionary of Modern Slang (also via Dictionary.com) dates that use to the 1960s+.

Additionally, although this article cites a source that mentions multiple other negative/pejorative uses of the word "retard" or "retarded" that have come into currency in the past 10-15 years, none of them are mentioned in this article. That needs to be expanded.

I came to look at this article because I read something else that told me that the use of the word "retard" to refer to people with intellectual disabilities was common and without negative implication in the early 1900s. I find this lacking in credibility since the phrase "mentally retarded" does not appear, from my own knowledge and the sources cited here, to have come into use until the 1950s or 60s. I will, however, look into it since this article does not have sufficient reliability for me to go away satisfied with its information. I also agree with the suggestion on the main page that this article might not be neutral in its current format, and that needs to be fixed. the word retarded isnt offensive

Eideann 1066 (talk) 10:25, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

Google n-gram for "mentally retarded" is interesting: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=mentally+retarded&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3

It shows usage "starting" "about" 1920, growing in the 50s, and sharply decaying after about 1965. The curve has to be taken with a grain of salt, because it cannot distinguish different uses nor tell us the moment of inception. But it suggests:

1) Look for a textbook around 1900 or 1920 where it is used medically.

2) Look for articles around 1964 that argue against its use.

2A02:1210:2642:4A00:28:9807:1477:DDB4 (talk) 18:29, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

Offensive

Why does the article claim in a generalised way that this word is considered offensive before continuing to demonstrate that it simply means delayed in latin and is therefore in every romantic language? That's a contradiction. If it's offensive somewhere, where is that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.240.228.211 (talk) 22:44, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Please read the entire article. The lead section is a summary of the referenced article body. Acroterion (talk) 00:13, 12 January 2024 (UTC)