People always complain about stuff. They always find things to complain about, even when they don’t really have anything to complain about. I have nothing to complain about so I am going to complain about all the people complaining. Meta-Complaining is what I call it.
In this meta-complaint I am going to complain about the word ‘gay’.
I read somewhere about some gay people are being offended that people are now using the word gay as a synonym for the word lame. I repeat: Gay people are being offended that people are using the word gay as a synonym for lame. Tough luck, language evolves. Do you know what gay meant originally? It meant ‘happy’. Then the term evolved to become a synonym for homosexual. And now the word is evolving again. Well not now, it’s actually been changing since 1996 at least.
The truth is that words are evolving all the time. The meaning of the word lame has evolved too. Take a look at wikipedia’s euphemism article.
Trying to stop it is futile and political correctness is not a solution. Just deal with it!
Obviously though, what words evolve and what they evolve into (depending on the word) may be a possible reflection of that society’s prejudices. But that theory needs more than just two case studies.
But that is a different issue all together…