I don’t know if I’m just becoming overly sensitive to my own language or if this is an actual issue, so feel free to let me know if it seems that I just need to grow thicker skin, but still.
I keep getting this uneasy feeling whenever I use the word “lame” and I think it’s because I’m starting to realize it’s technically ableist. However, there’s no single non-profane word that I know of that fits the niche that I use it in.
For example, I wrote out something earlier about a behavior I do that I don’t like that I do because I think it’s kind of shitty behavior, but it’s overall harmless. I use lame to describe it casually. I could also call it kind of shitty, as I did before, but not to audiences that I don’t want to use profanity around.
Anyone know of a word I can replace “lame” with?
I’d say maybe weak, but that’s got its own baggage that I’m not sure I’m ok with switching to. Annoying is too strong of a word for what I’m going for. Maybe lame is a short word for “this makes me feel slightly sad”?
Idk, so I open it up to the public: Is this even an issue or am I being too sensitive? Could this be solved in a single replacement word or do I need a whole ass phrase to express this?
Maybe use “sucks”? Or “uncool” (“That thing I did was so uncool. It was really sucky.”) would probably be my top suggestions.
I have seen signs hung around nearby schools trying to get the word “gay” out of common use to mean the same thing that “lame” is used for, but I don’t remember a lot of the things that were on the list. If I find a copy of the sign (or one like it) I’ll add it. (ok, that was 5 years ago, so they may not still be used? … That’s naive, even for me.)
As someone else said, though, I think it’s used so infrequently to mean “disabled” in modern English, that you probably don’t have to worry about it.
Also, I like using “weak-sauce” if I have to watch my language - I think I’m too old to use “cringe” as often, unless it’s, like, really cringe.
P.s. I’m disabled, walking problems, bad back, one leg a little shorter than the other… I use “lame” to mean shitty/uncouth/sucky/disappointing/boring and don’t take offense to it…
Weak-sauce is the exact essence of what I’m trying to get at, but it’s too… Millennial… Like, internally there’s no issue with using it, but saying/typing it out to someone older than me feels distinctly cringe (in the lightest sense, though lol just like something you’re not supposed to do, you know?)
I’m a Millennial and “weak sauce” sounds pretty cringe. Or as someone said in this thread, infelicitous. It’s very 2010s. It had its time; it’s time we moved on from it, collectively lol…
(I had to check where I fall these days, since I thought of myself as Gen X forever, especially vs Millennial, but I guess I’m a Xennial?)
Anyway, I feel like “cringe” is in this same bucket :-P
No cap?
I literally had to look that up in Urban Dictionary when I started hearing that. I think that’s a sign haha…
“Sucks” has homophobic/misogynist roots, though, and they’re much more recent than the ableist usage of “lame”. Even the 1950’s version of “sucks eggs” wasn’t actually talking about the things that come from a chicken.
Yeah if I say something sucks, I find myself often adding “and not in a good way”.
Thanks, I didn’t realize that, either. I always thought it literal eggs, or literal lemons, or literal donkey-balls… (none of which sound pleasant to me)
This whole thread is enlightening to me, so thanks for asking and making your language more inclusive, OP!