In my last post I mentioned that the earliest usage of ‘retarded’ to describe mental capacity was in 1895. Even after that, the other definitions of retarded were still used to describe things with impeded function, but around 1960 the word ‘retarded’ was almost exclusively reserved for the mentally deficient.
‘Retarded’ wasn’t considered derogatory at the time, and found it’s way into many nonfictional works of literature. It was used to medically and objectively describe a mental condition. Its usage peaked in the 1970s, but still was used in a non-derogatory manner into the 2000s. After its peak usage, the instances of retarded being used in a derogatory fashion increased, probably triggering the response from the disabled community to put an end to its usage in the past couple years. At the same time, government and medical institutions began to stray away from the word ‘retarded’ in favor of more neutral terms, giving organizations that are in support of the disabled community even more of a reason to attempt to stop the usage of the word.
‘Retarded’ wasn’t considered derogatory at the time, and found it’s way into many nonfictional works of literature. It was used to medically and objectively describe a mental condition. Its usage peaked in the 1970s, but still was used in a non-derogatory manner into the 2000s. After its peak usage, the instances of retarded being used in a derogatory fashion increased, probably triggering the response from the disabled community to put an end to its usage in the past couple years. At the same time, government and medical institutions began to stray away from the word ‘retarded’ in favor of more neutral terms, giving organizations that are in support of the disabled community even more of a reason to attempt to stop the usage of the word.
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