Reply #76: Interestingly enough, "idiot" and "moron" were once the preferred

[tblue37]

labels doctors used for the developmentally disabled. Then, because those words became used as insults, doctors switched to "retarded"--ironically, as a more pc euphemism. Then it started being used as an insult, too, so now "developmentally disabled" is the preferred term, with the added benefit (they thought) that it could not be easily slung around as an insult. But lo and behold, kids in grade school and middle school now call each other "developmental" as an insult.

Just like "pansy," "fag," and other such slurs, once a term associated with a certain marginalized and discriminated against group begins to be slung around as an insult for mainstreamers, it becomes offensive to those it was originally associated with--specifically because it now is an insult. I suspect "pansy" was always an insult, but I wonder about "fag." I believe I read somewhere that it started out with a fairly neutral connotation.