Origin of "retarded" (slang)

Question

retarded[ri-tahr-did]

adjective

1. characterized by a slowness or limitation in intellectual understanding and awareness, emotional development, academic progress, etc.

2. Slang. stupid or foolish

noun

3. (used with a plural verb) people who are slow or limited in mental development (usually preceded by the)

   new schools for the retarded.

Usually the word retarded, or it's synonym handicapped, is considered a sensitive word/topic. When being misused or used as slang, it is considered very offensive. It is also considered being disrespectful to the crippled. When was the slang term of the original word, retard, first used? What is it's origin?

Answer 1

You can start, as starts often do, with Wikipedia. "Retarded" originally started in the early 1900s as part of the phrase "mentally retarded", per Ngram and gained traction in the 1960s, being considered at the time to be the more sensitive, as it implies that cognitive shortcomings are not intrinsic, but rather a result of slow development. The wiki article claims that the use of the isolated "retard" dates to the mid 1980s.

Answer 2

This Wikipedia article, though brief and lacking much detail, describes the relationships between the various terms.

Basically, "idiot" has an IQ of 25 or below, "imbecile" has an IQ of 26-50, and "moron" has an IQ of 51-70.

Another reference describes the "mental retardation" scale that replaced idiot/imbecile/moron:

IQ score ranges (from DSM-IV, issued 1994):

• Mild mental retardation: IQ 50-55 to 70; children require mild support; formally called "Educable Mentally Retarded".

• Moderate retardation: IQ 35-40 to 50-55; children require moderate supervision and assistance; formally called "Trainable Mentally Retarded".

• Severe mental retardation: IQ 20-25 to 35-40; can be taught basic life skills and simple tasks with supervision.

• Profound mental retardation: IQ below 20-25; usually caused by a neurological condition; require constant care.

(When I had conversations with workers at the local mental hospital in 1974 they were using the terms "Educable Mentally Retarded" and "Trainable Mentally Retarded", rather than "Mild" and "Moderate".)

It's hard to find precise info on when the various changes occurred, save that (in the US) "Rosa's Law" was finally passed and signed in 2010, changing "mental retardation" to "intellectual disability" in US law.

As for the origin of the "offensive" sense of the above terms, people are people. If "idiot" or "retarded" is used as a technical description of a condition, and that condition implies something "bad" about the person with the condition, people will use the term as an insult. No one "invents" this usage, it just happens. The fact that "intellectually disabled", the latest term, is not (to my knowledge) already a popular insult is simply because it's too long and complicated to say (especially compared to "idiot" or "retard").

Answer 3

The OED finds the earliest use of retarded as a mental disability from G E Shuttleworth's 1895 book Mentally Deficient Children":

Such children are also described as 'backward', or of 'retarded mental development' -- terms corresponding to the 'Enfants arriérés' of French writers... and the 'Tardivi' of the Italians.

These French writers likely based their terminology of that of Édouard Séguin's 1846 treatise Traitement moral, hygiène et éducation des idiots et des autres enfants arriérés, which Wikipedia calls "the earliest systematic textbook dealing with the special needs of children with intellectual disabilities."

I can find in an online copy of La Riforma Medica, Gionale Internazionale Quotidiano di Medicina, chirurgia e scienze affini (Medical Reform, the International Daily Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Related Sciences) what appears to be a reference to a school which in 1881 made the "first attempts" (primi tentativi) to educate retarded students ("tardivi gli scolaretti")

But fair warning, my Italian isn't much better than the online automatic translators.

The OED finds the earliest written use of retard in the March 23, 1970 issue of Time Magazine with an abusive meaning -- "CIA retards." The Association for Retarded Children (now the Association for Retarded Citizens) formed in 1950, and it's unlikely that they would have used the word retarded in their name if it had a pejorative connotation at the time. Maybe someone can narrow the timeframe.

The word is currently poisonous enough that a 2010 law removes the word from federal documents, replacing it with "intellectual disability."

Answer 4

The word Retard originally came from the word Ritardando, a musical term that means to slow down or play slowly. This word now sadly is used for making fun off people for being slow academically or for other things.