What would you do if your manager used this word?

[Shimmyshine193]

If they referred to someone, indirectly as a m*ng?

Hordes of people use the word without knowing its roots.

At what point does it become a free standing word, detached from its roots?

It doesn’t.

I'm not sure it can. People use the word to describe someone who they consider to be stupid. There's no getting away from its roots unless the meaning of the word changes.

@RobertaFirmino Thank you, I had pretty much forgotten that insult, I haven't heard it for 50 years.

are you in Essex? I used to hear it when I worked around there years and years ago

yanbu, absolutely shouldn't be used, especially in todays times

I would assume they were uneducated and rather thick. Hopefully the utter look of icy contempt on my face would deter them using the word in my presence again.

There’s been a resent resurgence of ableist insults. “Retard” and derivatives of it, particularly in the US, with words such as “libtard” etc. have been everywhere.

I don’t care how much you swear but using language historically used as a derogatory descriptor for disabled people is disgusting.

And if you think it’s OK, then you’re a shitty person too. No excuse for this.

I don’t think anyone was struggling to understand the word and its meaning…

I’d be embarrassed for them and very uncomfortable, I would hope to have the guts to speak out.

I've never in my 18 year career heard that word at work. This is very strange.

I would call them out straight away. Utterly repulsive word to use.

We used to call each other gay a lot in the 1990s (gay friends would join with that one) but m*ng was never acceptable, even then. Is in line with r’tard in terms of words not to be used.

Indeed.

No they don’t. It’s used very rarely these days and then only by fucking idiots.

I think, to play devil's advocate, if they're normally a decent person, I'd seek to have a conversation directly with them, and hope to explain why it's not okay to use that word. We all have blind spots in our language usage. And education is the answer.

However, if it was a pattern of behaviour, and part of a wider thing, I'd raise it to their manager.

I've not heard it in decades tbh, didn't think it was still in use. I'd have got a slap for using it and that was in the 90s.

I misunderstood and thought the word being referred to was minger.
I dont think I've ever heard the actual wond used.
But I do remember when downs syndrome people were called after people from a particular Asian country.
The people using it then were mostly older women and did not mean it unkindly.
I think they thought that was the correct term. Was over 50 years ago.
But I've never heard the 4 letter word mentioned here.

I've been sitting here going through the five verbs and putting them into m_ng. It isn't a word I've ever met, but I am old enough to have lived through the time when the word 'mongol' was used, so thank you for the explanation that this is a shortened form.

DS' year 1 teacher used the phrase m*nging out when talking about her husband (to me not ds) I didn't know what to say!!
Not appropriate language at all, the teacher is fairly young and I just gave the benefit of the doubt that she doesn't know what it means.....

A chap I once worked with frequently referred to a particular colleague as such. Admittedly said colleague wasn't all that bright but it still struck me as off limits. Similarly, another well-loved workmate once described some crap performers as 'retards' which got right up my nose. Really, there's some words which you might think but don't ever say.

Disgusting. My manager in my first ever job used the word ‘retarded’ in an email and I regret to this day that I was too shy and scared to make a massive fuss about it.

It wasn’t Mongol, it was Mongoloid. It was used medically, I believe.

Not just disablist but racist too.

However, it’s very likely that younger people, kids, have no idea of its origins, I should think many would find it completely unbelievable that that’s how people with DS were referred to (or East Asians either, for that matter).

But that doesn’t apply to your colleague so I would report this.

It's such a horrible word that MN changed the title of a good-natured thread started some time back that had nothing whatsoever to do with insulting people with disabilities.

It was using it as verb meaning 'to sell' - as in the traditional words for purveyors of fish and iron - and asking what else it is used for. MNHQ changed the title to 'What do you monger?', which made very little grammatical sense.

Do people who claim never to hear it never actually leave their houses?

I’ve heard it plenty of times in a range of settings recently.

Agree.
Far more offensive than cunt in my opinion.