Stop being such a spaz about your lenses!

I guess I must be the age of Chris and sper. To me spaz is a term of endearment to a friend like, "What a spaz!", as his new lens slips out of his hands to land crashing on the concrete floor!
 
kully said:
Spaz, spaccer, spac attack. I used all these when I was a _child_.
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Exactly. And 'spazzing around'. There are things you don't look back on with pride.

Sorry, Sper, it's not hilarious (and I'm not sure things can be 'a little hilarious'). It's a hangover from the past that some of us find a bit offensive. No-one is accusing you of using the word to make fun of those with disabilities, but we have pointed out that it is no longer a word used by most people, at least in the English-speaking world, at least above a certain age. My American wife says that she always understood it to mean the same as it does in English, too.

A small apology, along the lines of "Sorry, I didn't realize that anyone would find it offensive," might be more in order.

EDIT: Some of care us more about this sort of thing (human dignity) than about lenses. Hence the number of 'off topic' responses.

Cheers,

R.
 
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Well, since I can only use language acceptable to British people who haven't watched American television prior to 1980...

I am lugent! What a foppotee I am. My flosculation was not meant to cause acraisal banter.

And I'll make sure next time i'm in the UK, to make sure nobody uses words that have a different meaning in the USA. I hear people from other cultures like that...
 
Roger Hicks said:
Exactly. And 'spazzing around'. There are things you don't look back on with pride.

Sorry, Sper, it's not hilarious (and I'm not sure things can be 'a little hilarious'). It's a hangover from the past that some of us find a bit offensive. No-one is accusing you of using the word to make fun of those with disabilities, but we have pointed out that it is no longer a word used by most people, at least in the English-speaking world, at least above a certain age. My American wife says that she always understood it to mean the same as it does in English, too.

A small apology, along the lines of "Sorry, I didn't realize that anyone would find it offensive," might be more in order.

EDIT: Some of care us more about this sort of thing (human dignity) than about lenses. Hence the number of 'off topic' responses.

Cheers,

R.
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OK, I've thought about it, Roger. I think I am a decent person, and I have no reason to believe that sper is not.

A lot of us look up to you Roger, and I think if you have a personal axe to grind, you should be up front about it.
 
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I think it important to give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to character. We all make errors and I fell foul of one some years back when completely innocently using an abbreviation of a certain nationality (that was in regular use in the UK in this form, but where it was considered derogatory in the US, unbeknown to me). Ironically I posted it while directing someone to a website they would find useful. I was quite shocked by the private message witch hunt that ensued, accusing me of being racist (which in itself was ridiculous seeing as I was married to an African Muslim with whom I have two beautiful children)... I was upset and angry that those harassing me refused to accept that I really had no idea. I refused to apologise after the tirade of slurs and mud thrown on my character in the first PM from the 'victim' in which I was made to feel responsible for 'generations of suffering.'

So Sper, you got off lightly LOL.

Time to move on?
 
dmc said:
OK, I've thought about it, Roger. I think I am a decent person, and I have no reason to believe that sper is not.

A lot of us look up to you Roger, and I think if you have a personal axe to grind, you should be up front about it.
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Note however that I specifically said first, most people, further qualifying it on age, and second, that no-one was accusing the OP of deliberately trying to insult people. I have no doubt that he is a decent person, likewise, I assume you are too.

What personal axe could I be grinding, and how can I be 'up front about it'? I did not remark upon the use of what I regard as a term of abuse until others had already done so.

In his position, I hope I would say, "Sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone," though I might also, as others have done, say that I didn't realize that anyone else would be offended.

I know I can be prickly and thin-skinned at times, which is why I try to make a particular effort not to be. But, I am not alone in finding 'spaz' offensive.

Cheers,

R.
 
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Like others, too, I sometimes find it hard to understand what is deleted and what is allowed to stand, but overall, I believe that the moderators are doing an unpaid and largely thankless task in a way that could hardly be bettered. The overall standard of civility on this forum is vastly higher than any other I know, and I value that. I assume others do too.

Cheers,

R.
 
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Chris101 said:
The term "spaz" has been used for a long time outside of the context of referring to cerebral palsy.

Many older people think that the work "sucks" refers to felatio, but derogatory terms like "spaz" and "suck" have been modified by use so that the origin of the term is not referenced by the words in their new context. Eventually a word becomes so modified that one cannot tell what it means except by context. The famous four letter word is one such word, and its meaning can range from a powerful insult to an invitation to romance.

Using the term "spaz-out" means to 'not remain calm' in the context that the writer used.
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Dear Chris,

This is, no doubt, age-related, as you say. On the other hand, there are still plenty who find 'suck' pretty childish and offensive too, simply because most people over the age of 30 or 40 have heard them pretty much all their lives.

'Unacceptable' words make a fascinating study. I'm told -- perhaps some of our French Canadian friends can confirm or deny this -- that religious terms are (or were) widely used in French Canadian: tabernacle, calice, that sort of thing, and I'll long remember my boss, a respectable married woman of about 30, confidently predicting in about 1980 that in 20 years or so we'd be able to use the term 'screw up' in polite conversation. Which hath come to pass: I've even heard it on BBC Radio 4, normally a bastion of propriety.

Sexual insults and 'bad words' go back a very long way, and 'suck' is just the latest in a long line. Probably the most recent in English (as distinct from American) usage is 'wanker', implying that the recipient is an expert in the manly art of self-abuse.

Insults based on mental health are common, too: idiot, moron, cretin, though in a sense, these antedate any popular understanding of mental health (if, indeed, such a thing exists today) and were merely synonyms for 'extremely stupid'.

But 'bad words' based on physical disabilities seem to me to be unusually unpleasant, hence my taking against 'spaz'.

Cheers,

R.
 
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Roger

I am just a "maudit anglais" but you are or were correct about French Canadian "Unacceptable" words.

Bob
 
This is a perfect example:


those of you on the other side of the pond are spazzing out over the use of the word spaz :)

As my grandmother would say," Dont get your panties in a wad"
 
The meaning and usage of a word changes from one generation to the next and from one culture to another. When you have a forum with such a large range of ages participating from all over the world the only way to be sure not to offend anyone would be to say nothing.

Bob
 
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