It still applies in India as well.

I started off leaning toward it's fine, but then I think, "Would it make someone (anyone) cringe if they were sensitive about their condition?" and I don't want to make anyone feel that way.

Maybe not using slang for my private parts as a synonym for wimp cringeworthy, but probably best to avoid.

"gay" to mean lame

And then "lame" is problematic to some people. I try not to use it, but I'm not doing very well at it.

slang for my private parts as a synonym for wimp

Oh, man, that's another one I do that I'm really trying to stop saying.

I do think there is a real divide between the UK and US on this. But that said, since it clearly will read to some people as a slur, then I have no stake in claiming a right to use it. If I happen to without thinking about it and get called on it, it won't have been with intent, but it'll still be a fair cop.

I don't get mad about it. It's ingrained in people. I do point out that it's a pretty awesome thing, and people usually agree and then start to think about how they use it, and I'm ok with that.

See also Bitch & Animal-Pussy Manifesto [link]

This is part of why I like douche as a negative word! No bad connotations.

ION, my friend called to tell me the gender of her future baby, and I had to tell her that her husband already scooped her on Facebook! This modern world.

This is part of why I like douche as a negative word! No bad connotations.

Ha! Not so much in some circles.

yep. I'm with brenda. I'll have to pay attention to keep that out of my usage though, particularly with non-US audiences. I already jokingly say "bloody" this and "bloody" that...and I also need to be careful about that too.

I'm going to cause an international incident if I go to the UK any time soon.

Well, I mean that the origin is already a bad thing. (I'm going to say invented by men, but that might not be true, but definitely designed to fuck with women's bodies in ways that are unnecessary.)

Maybe I mean that the bad connotations are pure.

You do know that spastic is currently a term that applies to CP, just not where you live, right?

Do you think I was being snarky?

Many, many words are currently offensive all over while being absolutely benign other places. "Bollocks" and "fanny" meant absolutely nothing to me when I started university in the UK. You can see where that's headed. I imagine when I was in elementary school in Hilo, HI, my cohort of second graders had no knowledge of what "spazz" was derived from.

I personally really resent the implications of the word "hysteria" so I don't use it. However, I am not offended by its use; I imagine a lot of people who use it don't know the origin. I was asking a real question about origins and usage, I wasn't being snarky. Like others, I want to be thoughtful about what I say. I don't go out of my way to offend. But I am also very aware that language changes very much over time.

(As a side note, the denotation-lover in me sometimes doesn't like that very much! I hate that people use "disinterest" incorrectly as a synonmym for "lack of appeal" that a subject might hold since it actually means unbiased, but it's been used so wrongly for so many years that the official dictionaries will probably just give in if they haven't already.)

Also, a Scot I know here called his neighbor a cunt to her face, thinking he was using a bad word, but not THAT bad.

The internet does not live in the US.