Dear f-list: Please help me not be fucking offensive (offensiveness follows)

[brown_betty]

I'm working on not using 'lame' when I don't mean a mobility impairment, because it is offensive to people I care about. But it's hard going, both because it's an ingrained and thoughtless habit, and because I keep going, “That's lame! I mean, uh. That's. Uh

Comments

[rsadelle]

I have no answers, but you totally rock for asking the question, because I've been trying to excise "lame" from my vocabulary too, and not only have I not yet gotten around to asking people about ideas for replacements, but you probably have more people reading your LJ than I do mine. An additional thing I've been thinking of when trying to come up with a replacement is that "lame" is fun to say - it has that nice long, high vowel sound, and then the m - and a good replacement should be too. The only replacement suggestion I can remember seeing is "uncool," which is, uh, uncool.

[brown_betty]

I think you're right about the sound, which is definitely a component. It has a nice anglo-saxon sound to it, which makes it almost a cuss. sinquepida suggests "bogus" which also has snap, although she rightly notes that it may be difficult to sell oneself as hip when using the lingo of the um... when did they say "bogus"?

[brown_betty]

Oh dear.

[brown_betty]

Well, in reality, one word never substitutes perfectly for another, so I'll probably adopt a combination just for nuances of meaning.

[calligrafiti]

In three more years it might qualify as retro.

[waves] Hi! I'm here from a link in azurelunatic's journal. I appreciate the discussion, as I've occasionally used "lame" in spite of living with two people who needed a wheelchair or a walker at various points in their lives. I'll have to try substituting "pants" or "underwhelming".

[sinquepida]

I'm, um, retro! Or. It's ironic!

Yeah. IDK (wait, do we still say that?).