Category: Linguistics

Is “Victim” the Right Word?

Words have power and meaning. Cancer patients after their treatment are “survivors.” So are those sexually assaulted. It implies strength. Victimhood implies disempowerment, helplessness, and weakness. I suggest we consider replacing “victim” with “aggrieved.” Someone that a criminal has wronged.…

ROTFLOLing and memetics

Just a quick pointer to a blog I posted about language changes being decried by American linguists. Where we used to have words change flavor and meaning, such as “Gay” going from happy to queer (which used to mean odd),…