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	platedlizard 2011-03-17 05:59 am UTC (link)
	Wikipedia says it means "idiot or mentally deficient person" I actually thought it was something bird-related, one of those tiny birds that flit around going 'twit twit' (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	aaron_agonistes 2011-03-17 06:12 am UTC (link)
	Interesting. etymonline.com says that the origin of the word is "blame" or "reproach", so the current usage would be a person behaving in a manner foolish enough to warrant a reproving comment. Is there anywhere other that wiki that it's listed as being specifically ableist? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	life_on_mars 2011-03-17 11:13 pm UTC (link)
	the origin of the word is "blame" or "reproach", That's in the verb form. As a noun, it tends to mean someone blundering and incompetent rather than mentally deficient. (Reply to this)(Parent)

eclatante
2011-03-18 06:08 am UTC (link)

The noun meaning "foolish, stupid and ineffectual person" is first attested 1934 in British slang, popular 1950s-60s, crossed over to U.S. with British sitcoms. It probably developed from the verb sense of "reproach" but may be influenced by "nitwit".

The bolded part is probably what people are thinking about. In any case certain activisty folk aren't too fond of certain modern conceptions of intelligence (i.e., intelligence as universally measurable/comparable, lack of culturally conceived intelligence as subhumanizing, etc.), so maybe that's also playing a part?

idk my bff etymology

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	napalmnacey 2011-03-18 09:36 am UTC (link)
	From what I know, (I'm Australian so it's used a lot in our lexicon) it just means to be very silly or foolish. I don't see where the connection to intelligence levels come from. I hope it's not ableist, cause I love that word. My Mum and I use it all the time when the cat does something silly. (Reply to this)(Parent)

spacelogic
2011-03-17 06:34 am UTC (link)

Ah. Okay. I'm not sure I think that's a reliable definition, because it doesn't match up with what I found anywhere else (I did see some with "idiot" in them but it was clearly not the, uh, clinical sense of the word) but it's good to know where that came from anyway.

(This is not to say I'm dismissing the concern because of the dictionary definition and etymology -- the important thing is, of course, not hurting people. I just wanted to know if there were some kind of ugly history to the term that I wasn't aware of because I'm a geek.)

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	platedlizard 2011-03-17 06:39 am UTC (link)
	Eh, I admit, I'm probably not going to concern myself with it. It's not something that's currently used in reference toward people with cognitive issues like retarded is. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	spawn_of_kong 2011-03-17 09:35 am UTC (link)
	Huh. I've always associated it with the Roald Dahl book, in which the titular characters are a pair of horrible, mean-spirited people. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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