Re: What are the offensive words in english?

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The list could be nearly endless, as we can always find someone who is offended by something. The most common "politically incorrect" terms are those that 'identify' people, such as the one you have already mentioned (although I know many black people who prefer that to African-American -- just as long as you don't say 'negro' or the other highly offensive n-word).

handicapped has become "____-impaired" or "-challenged".

The best advice I can think of is just to speak and write as you assume is correct, then apologize for anything you might have said, make a note of it and go on.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Actually, every black person I've ever met says "black." I know people who say "African-American" as well, but I think very few people are offended by the word "black." A lot of other words that used to be neutral have come to sound outdated and rude, though -- for instance, "colored" and "Negro."

Are you looking for a list of all kinds of offensive words? Swears, dirty slang, racial slurs, etc.? Or just words that sound safe but might not be?

Anonymous · Answer

I hear "disabled" much more often than "____-challenged."  Actually, the latter has always struck me as extremely patronizing.

Philip · Answer

AnonymousI hear "disabled" much more often than "____-challenged." Actually,the latter has always struck me as extremely patronizing.

I agree with you completely! "Deaf" is a perfectly good word that needn't be replaced by "hearing-impaired" (unless the person is just a little hard of hearing). If a person is completely "blind", he is much more, in my opinion, than "visually impaired".

In fact, we've seen many examples of parody on the whole thing: altitude-challenged (short); hair-impaired (bald); probably many more.

Re: What are the offensive words in english?

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