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?
