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Eliminating the usage of words with offensive connotations from the English language is double plus good.

edit: Downvotes and the wording of some responses make me concerned that some folks may be unaware of the reference. Doubleplusgood is a newspeak word used in the book 1984. Newspeak is a language that is used to eliminate the ability for people to express unapproved thoughts because there are no words with which to express the concepts to others.



Everything changes, language changes, but I wonder if erasing negative words might make us forget their meaning and repeat the history behind them.


American is not going to start the slave trade again because we stopped using the word "master" in software engineering


Oh wow did someone say that would happen?


“but I wonder if erasing negative words might make us forget their meaning and repeat the history behind them.”

In response to an article about removing the word master


Slaves exist today. What else would you call it when the economic system makes people desperate enough to walk into a sulphur hole barefoot to carry chunks of sulfur out that will be used in all sorts of industry, including the making of circuit boards for switches and computers that power the infrastructure we're using right now?


I get the feeling sometimes that language is unstable in the absence of outside forcing.

Stupid, moron, retard. People start using them as a pejorative and so a new neutral term is required.

Lavatory, toilet, water closet, bathroom. People don't like talking about poo so they keep using euphemisms to describe the room where it happens. This one is a favourite of mine as some people find 'toilet' distasteful despite it being the furtherest from the actual action taking place.

Very, literally. Not sure where this one is headed, but if it's happened at least twice, it'll shift again some time.

Are we doomed to keep shifting language to keep up taboos and keep the meaning of words which naturally will shift?


The argument of the author is that he feels like tech is ONLY doing the name changes and is congratulating themselves about being inclusive afterwards.

I agree with this observation. For reasons that the author has articulated far better than I would in this comment, so please read the whole thing.


Oh I absolutely did. No reason for me to repeat the entire article in my own response to it, so I referenced newspeak instead.

The map is not the territory, and you may simply be noticing the differences between your map and mine.


People will always find negative conotations for any word. Have you see UrbanDict recently?

Words are not he problem, attitudes are.




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