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Comment by smt88 | Hacker News Reader

> really gimped our performance

I'm a native English speaker in the US and have never heard or read "gimp" used as an adjective this way. Never.

I have heard it used as a slur against people with disabilities many times, in real life, movies, and books.

Even the usage you're claiming is the most common sounds like it's a synonym for "cripple".

The entire etymology for the word "gimp" supports that it was conceived originally as a slur and continues to be used that way.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/gimp

Either way, why would anyone want to download something with that name? It's embarrassing to recommend it to people.

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> really gimped our performance

It's used that way in Australia, the only time in my life I've heard gimp used in a derogatory way was in pulp fiction.

But this illustrates a big problem with all these PC crusades lately, they're trying to apply US (at least parts of the US) cultural norms to international projects, often at the expense of alienating most of the world.

> PC crusades

It's not a "crusade" in any sense. It's one issue on a GitLab that someone decided to link over here (not one of the people who made the issue, I think). It is about "political correctness" only in that it's genuinely hard to get some people to even consider using this free software because, and ONLY because, of its name.

I think you should rethink your idea of a crusade if you think this is what that word means.

This is hardly an isolated event, it's not just a single issue on a single project.

> It is about "political correctness" only in that it's genuinely hard to get some people to even consider using this free software because, and ONLY because, of its name.

People that vain will find something else to dislike about it.

I've heard it used by British friends as an insult that means "idiot" but I've never heard a disabled person called a gimp. Frankly I wasn't aware that was a usage until I looked it up to check. It's certainly not used that way in the US, at least in my region.

The word originated as a slur for people with disabilities. That is its origin and still the first definition in the dictionary (for slang usage). You're trying to argue that a word is not defined the way the dictionary defines it.

Dictionaries aren't perfect, but they're more widely agreed-on and useful than your anecdata.

> they're trying to apply US (at least parts of the US) cultural norms to international projects

Out of 379M native English speakers[1], 234M[2] live in the US. That's about 61%. If our English-language norms are widespread, they're also likely used by a majority of native English speakers.

(That's also not including Canada, which shares many of our language norms.)

> alienating most of the world

How does changing the name of Gimp "alienate" anyone? Whose feelings would be hurt and why? Who would stop using the product out of rage?

1. https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size

2. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/...

I'm not arguing that the etymological origin of the word isn't offensive, just that most of it's current usage (in my experience) isn't. If anything having such a great and popular app associated with the word will further diminish it's derogatory use.

> Out of 379M native English speakers[1], 234M[2] live in the US. That's about 61%. If our English-language norms are widespread, they're also likely used by a majority of native English speakers.

The replies here indicate that it's not universally used in it's derogatory meaning within the US either. Not that it matters, I was talking about applying the cultural norms to the rest of the world, the culture being the PC professional standards of white collar workers in large cities. The more that get's forced into OSS, of which this is just one example of a trend, and most of the world and anyone that want's more inclusivity should be fighting against this sort of rubbish.

If you care so much about etymology, at least refer to a resource that isn't biased:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/gimp

"GIMP" is merely an unfortunate consequence of the editor being named "GNU Image Manipulation Editor". GIMP is the obvious acronym.

Your source agrees with my source: gimp is a word used to refer to a person with a disability.

However, you claim that it originated as a "slur", without any evidence to support that.

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