While We’re Banning

While we’re banning words and phrases like “you guys,” here’s some more we might want to ban given their offensive history. Note that I am not making these up. This is not satire.

divest: original fully parallel meaning was “to remove one’s clothes.”

basket case: originally referred to a WWI soldier who had lost all four limbs, thus needing to be carried around in a basket. (Note: the etymology itself is probably based on a rumor or a myth, in that no one ever used it to refer to this in real life, but everyone thought someone had [including the OED, which is wrong] so it became cemented with this “pseudo-false” etymology.)

to drink the Kool-Aid: refers to mass suicide by the Jim Jones cult using cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.

peanut galleries: refers to the upper balconies where (mostly) black people were forced to sit in segregated theaters.

grandfathered in: designed to exclude black voters, the phrase originates with the practice of allowing voters in Southern states to vote if their grandfather had voted before 1867.

bugger: originally an offensive term for a Bulgarian.

fuzzy wuzzy: used originally as a slur by British soldiers for an East African tribe due to the tribe’s dark skin and curly hair.

nice: originally meant “silly” or “ignorant” or “foolish.”

fizzle: originally meant “a silent fart.”

quell: originally meant “to kill.”

villain: original meaning was a “laborer” or “farmer.”

luxury: lechery or lust.

pumpernickel: means “the devil’s fart” in German.

avocado: originated partially from the Nahuatl word for “testicle.”

reduce: an original meaning of the word was to conquer or subdue a town, as in war.

travel: by way of Old French back to Latin, the original word “trepalium” was a torture device made of three stakes.

hip hip hooray: a rallying cry German citizens used while hunting Jewish people in the ghettoes. (This is not its origin, but as with the swastika become associated in this way.)

abandon: in Middle English, it means to subjugate or subdue something.

addict: Romans referred to those given as slaves as “addicts.”

dork: used to mean “penis.”

punk: original meaning was harlot or prostitute, also referred to a catamite (young boy used for sex), or the passive partner in anal sex.

boy: originally referred (only) to a servant, originally from old French meaning “one fettered.” In other words, a slave.

bedlam: a corruption of the name “Bethlem Royal Hospital” where mentally ill people were housed.

blockbuster: originally referred to a bomb powerful enough to destroy a city block.

treadmill: originally a prison punishment/torture device.

robot: from the Czech word for “forced labor”, aka, a slave.

When are the weirdo leftists going to demand we ban these words as well?