Eureka Moment

Now I finally have a word for it: "Degredation".

I've been arguing...much less cogently...this point for years. Every time the language Nazis insist we change the words we use to describe things or people, the new word always takes on the old word's negativity.

Nigger became Colored became Negro became Afro-American became Black became African American...and ultimately the only effect was to make most non-blacks roll their eyes every time a "new" designation was introduced.

[I stopped at "Black", and I'm not budging.]

One of my favorite stupid "evolutions" is of words we use to designate crippled people.

[Did she just say "crippled"?]

"Linguistically speaking, this phenomenon is euphemism -- the same prissiness about diction we used to mock the Victorians for. It's based on the illusion that words control reality. Linguists know the truth is the opposite; words take their meaning from how they are used. Merely forcing people not to use an "offensive" word doesn't in itself change their attitudes, so the euphemistic word gradually takes on the associations of the suppressed word. Linguists call this phenomenon degradation (of the word, not of what the word is being applied to).

Once upon a time, "stout" meant "strong" and "portly" meant "dignified," but they have been euphemisms for "fat" for so long that now they primarily mean fat (though "portly" does retain enough of its original meaning that it suggests the would-be dignified Oliver Hardy sort of fat guy). "Homeless" was supposed to cure us of our negative attitude toward bums by portraying them as victims, merely lacking a home, but within just a few years it took on associations of bumhood: lazy, flaky, screwed-up sponger and low-life. This is why liberals have to keep introducing new politically correct terms all the time: to keep ahead of the inexorable degradation."

So there you go. Resist the idiots. Refuse to surrender the language. If we're not careful, their sloppy language will turn us into sloppy thinkers. Language is the medium of thought.

The Gunslinger