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Hi Laurence, and happy new year, i think that again, beauty (or otherwise) is in the eye of the beholder. Calling a stranger a bastard and you may suffer serious damage unless you are a good scrapper, call a friend a bastard, and it is a term of endearment. rgds John ----- Original Message ----- From: Laurence Bathurst <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2000 9:29 AM Subject: RE: disability language > Hi all > > I am hoping this account is peculiar to the Australian vernacular, so it wil > be of some interest to folk afar. If its universal, let me know. > Two radio announcers this morning on 'youth' radio in Australia, > discussing the term 'packing a sad' and its meaning. It was suggested at > first that it meant 'being sad or sorry' but callers alerted them to the more > 'common' meaning of getting really angry. The host of the program > clarified this meaning by using an alternative expression 'chucking a > spazz' or 'going spastic'. These are two expressions that have been in the > Australian (Oz) vernacular for years. In my own childhood time 'spastic' > was a person with cerebral palsy (and yes we still have The Spastic > Centre and the Spastic Society in existence in Oz). The term in the > sixties and seventies was perjorative and was used to infer that someone > was in some way, intellectually or mentally deficient - not in reality but as > an insult. > > These days it has taken the conotation of a tantrum. "Chucking a spazz" > or a "spastic" where its meaning is other than a person with cerebral > palsy, has not been a term that is used in 'polite circles' but increasingly it > is being used across demographics. It is now used as a colloquialism on > National radio. My guess is that the flailing of limbs of someone throwing > a tantrum is being compared to athetoid movements associated with > cerebral palsy. It seems however that the connection between the two > has been lost. I refer to Mairian's mentioning of historical antecedents > and I think this is an interesting and probably not unique example of a > word changing meaning (whereas terms such as idiot, imbecile and > moron still denote 'intellectually deficient'). > > By the way, re offensive terminology and individual threshholds of > 'offence'. If someone refers to a word that you are offended by and you > alert them to it and are then accused of being precious - call them a fuck- > wit, tell them that you're quite comfortable with that term and ask them > exactly where they would like to draw the line :-) > > > Best regards > > Laurence Bathurst > School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences > Faculty of Health Sciences > University of Sydney > P.O. Box 170 > Lidcombe NSW 2141 > Australia > > Phone: (62 1) 9351 9509 > Fax: (62 1) 9351 9166 > e-mail: [log in to unmask] > > Please visit the School's interim web site at > http://www.ot.cchs.usyd.edu.au > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%