to think that theword 'cretin' shouldnt really be used on CBBC?

[tarantula]

I have always thought of it as offensive along the lines of 'retard' and other things like that. It was on Danni's house or whatever that stupid programme is called and dd was watching it on Iplayer. Want to double check this before I go rant at BBC.

YANBU I remember getting absolutely bollocked at school for calling someone this without knowing what it meant.

Cretin is as ofensive as spastic imho.

From wikipedia;

Cretinism is a condition of severely stunted physical and mental growth due to untreated congenital deficiency of thyroid hormones (congenital hypothyroidism) due to maternal nutritional deficiency of iodine.

The term cretin describes a person so affected, but, like words such as spastic and lunatic, also is a word of abuse.

it's as bad as "mongol" or "spaz"

I used to call my boys "cretinous infants" jokingly when they were being daft, but that was BEFORE a horrified friend told me what it meant

Thats what I thought but then had one of those moments of uncertainty. Am off to find someone to complain too.

Luckily dd has never heard the word before. I will explain to her how horrible it is.

YANBU, it is offensive.

Have now sent a strongly worded email to BBC asking for that episode to be takenoff air and an apology given. Lets see if htey take any notice

Don't hold your breath Tarantula. My dd is always moaning because she's not allowed to watch Tracy Beaker or Dani's house. Both are a pile of poo as far as I'm concerned.

I agree with you - cretin is offensive.

Mind you I didn't know that until a couple of years back - I just thought cretin was a synonym for stupid. However, my boss at the time had a daughter who had been born without a thyroid gland, so without drugs she would have had terribly stunted growth (and would have been called a cretin in olden times). I was glad to have been told this.

It is as bad as mongoloid then. I do think less people know this, however the bloody BBC should know shouldn' they?

Greensleevs - glad it wasn't just me! I called dd a cretin when she was younger - to me it was just a funny, Blackadder ish word.

I was mortified when I found out what it meant.