to politely request people stop using the word 'moron'

[opionated]

it was a medical term

What would Murray Goldberg say?

I was going to bring him into it!!

Both Moron & Retard are in common use in American soaps/comedies & in the UK so you're unlikely to win your crusade to have them kept as Victorian medical terms OP.

You may just have to "get with it" and

"get used to it" - was the end of that sentence!!

ExactlyKirta

Here we go 2,3,4

The word retard is used directly at people with learning difficulties and is offensive when used as an insult.

I have learnt a lot today and it’s only 8.19am.
I didn’t know that moron, idiot and cretin originated from medical terms.
Moron is one of my favourite words for terrible drivers. Also for Donald trump.
I love the new descriptions for Donald trump.

It's only people who think they're oh so clever for knowing that these words are archaic medical terms that come up with these threads (and there have been many in my Mumsnet memory). I still don't understand why they think that would make them off-limits as insults.

Using OP's reasoning I can call most of my neighbours 'cretins', as the word meant 'Christian' before it became, like moron, a medical term.

I would never use the word 'retard' but 'retarded' doesn't bother me so, probably because I associate it with 'ritardando' and think of it as meaning 'slow'. Same with 'spastic'--would never use it as a noun but would as an adjective. Maybe because nouns are used for name-calling whereas adjectives aren't?

You could start a very interesting (and long!) thread outlawing words on the basis of etymology. I worry we wouldn’t be left with many words to get through every day life with though.

I shall have to stop using "cad" and "bounder" too in case the OP gets a case of the vapours!!

OP is a silly hussy.

“Sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you”

Up there with the most ridiculous sentiments ever expressed.

Up there with the most ridiculous sentiments ever expressed.

Agreed, "get over yourself" would be much more appropriate.

I can see why more recently used medical terms are offensive. The Mongol (hate that) etc.

But the original meaning is long past. The language has moved on. Just as it always will.

In the past gay meant happy/jolly. It doesn't now. Queer meant strange/weird. It doesn't now.

It's perfectly ok for language to evolve, it'd be rather odd if it didn't as we'd all still be speaking old English like that of Beowulf.

Moron means carrot in welsh.
Lots of words offend me, but as an adult I let it go.

I think the op is a moron and needs to get a grip!

Glad to see the Professionally Onoffended are out in force!

Or even the Professionally Unoffended!

I would never use that term, have spent my life working with people with learning disabilities. I think its ok for people to demand their freedom of speech as long as they understand that I have the freedom to think that people who use this word, knowing its connetations are unkind and a bit boring.

The word cretin originated to describe the people of Crete. At some point back in the day when we were writing on vellum, someone was under the impression (rightly or otherwise) that the population of Crete were all inbreds and suffered mentally and physically as a result. The word Cretan then became cretin and we still use it today (when we type on computers and can no longer write on calf skin or anything much).

What birdsdestiny said.

The OP uses really offensive terms like fuckwit, though.

I am willing to bet.

Moron is tame, anyway.

I always make a point of differentiating between “gay” in its original sense and the recently grabbed “gay” to suggest homosexual. William Wordsworth had no idea of the latter.

I had no idea that moron was an offensive word until I texted a BBC radio show using it (about myself). They read out the text but changed the word to "idiot".