The word "retarded" long was and still is a perfectly normal word that describes a condition. It means the same type of thing as "developmentally handicapped" or "mentally challenged", it just doesn't have near as many syllables. It has never been a word for insulting or demeaning people...though some individuals are taking it that way nowadays.

The insulting and demeaning word was and is "REE-tard"...with the emphasis on the first syllable. That was and is the abusive word used by nasty schoolchildren to insult other children...and you can tell quite easily by the aggressive sound it has when someone uses it, that sound being notable on the first syllable.

It is as much of an error to equate the normal word "retarded" with the abusive word "REE-tard" as it is to equate the abusive word "nigger" with the normal word "negro" or the normal word "niggardly", as BillD pointed out.

And that's about all there is to it. If you get upset over someone using the word "retarded" to describe a medical condition of someone, then you have been misled by some form of political correctness lobby into imagining that a perfectly normal and neutral adjective is some kind of personal attack on people. It's not.

But if you think it is...then nothing I or anyone else could ever say will be able to convince you it isn't, right? Well, fine. Go ahead and get all het up about it then, but don't expect me to join you.

These are just changing styles in language, driven by various political lobbies and fueled by self-righteous indignation for the most part. People are forever fighting needlessly over changing styles in language. When they do that, they're just like a bunch of lemmings rushing to join the rest of the politically correct mob in the latest trend and rush off the cliff together...or throw someone else off it, more likely.

You wait. Some perfectly normal phrase or word that YOU take for granted today and mean no harm by when you use it will be considered just terribly AWFUL by a bunch of people 30 or 40 years from now, and they will be raising hell over it. I guarantee it.

The only thing I can't tell you is which normal phrase or word of the present it will be....

A tempest in a teapot, I'd call it.