I think it’s a bit different when the word has been totally abandoned for the previous use. I don’t know anyone who uses ‘lame’ or ‘dumb’ to refer to people with those disabilities. It’s practically an archaic meaning at this point. Gay is still most popular as a reference to sexuality.
I think it’s a bit different when the word has been totally abandoned for the previous use. I don’t know anyone who uses ‘lame’ or ‘dumb’ to refer to people with those disabilities. It’s practically an archaic meaning at this point. Gay is still most popular as a reference to sexuality.
How do you think they got to be archaic?
New words were found for the original meaning that were less pejorative, causing the slang to take over?