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Comment by fortran77 | Hacker News Reader

Agreed. It's an unfortunate word. There are better choices that wouldn't exclude people.

AFAIK it has nothing to do with physical disability. The word has a lot of meanings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp

The sexual connotation gets its name from the slur[1], because the suit handicaps the wearer. The name of the image editor originates from Pulp Fiction, which uses the sexual connotation.

[1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/40730/was-the-wo...

You linked to a disambiguation page. Here's the definition: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gimp

And most of the commonly understood meanings of the word are rather negative. Nobody hears the word "gimp" out of context and thinks of decorative sewing thread, for example.

I've used Gimp for 15 years and never once has being handicap or disabled reference crossed my mind while using this software until you just brought it up. You should reconsider reaching so hard.

Is English your first language? I ask because I didn't consider this a problem until 10-ish years ago, when I migrated to a mostly English-speaking country and many people I would be talking to, would be aware of that meaning.

I'm a native English speaker (USA) and I've never made the connection either. I've actually never heard anyone use the word 'gimp'. And I've been aware of GIMP for 10ish years.

Australia here. I've never knew the negative meanings the word has until I read this page. It's bizarre to read here people assuming everyone knows it's offensive.

As opposed to "git", which I used in school to mean an idiot, an annoying person. A "github" sounds like where those people gather..

I use and love GIMP. Also, I learnt it while my computer was set to a language I was learning (Spanish). I didn't understand 95% of the menu item words when I started. So, hearing people saying it's hard to use (in English) is also surprising. :-)

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