Hacker News Reader

Are you aware of the irony of complaining about people being hypersensitive while you're overreacting to someone explaining why some people might find a word offensive?

View on HN

You misunderstood me: I'm complaining about people being sensitive/offended due to the origin of a word. It's not a workable standard. Language changes and evolves, and the etymology should considered little more than a historical footnote not some significant, controlling thing.

If I open etymological dictionary and find out the word "pineapple" was originally coined to demean my ancestors (a fact I and a majority of people were completely unaware), what should the reaction be? Push everyone to start calling them Ananas comosus in everyday speech instead?

There's one difference between your experience and mine, and that is that I learned about the etymology from people with uteruses on separate occasions after I had used the word. So it's not some meaning lost to time, at least to people I associate with.

In any case, I made a suggestion. Do with it what you will.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com