I’ve noticed that the word ‘spaz’ is used often by Americans. However here in the UK it’s a highly offensive word as it derives from the word ‘spastic’ which used to be used to describe someone with severe disabilities, mainly those with lack of muscle control/make involuntary movements. Why is it acceptable to use the word in America? Did it derive from a different word or do people use it without knowing the origin?
I’m being downvoted a lot here….don’t really understand because myself and others all grew up with the origin deriving from ‘spastic’. I can’t help that?! I’m also agreeing that different words have different origins and simply wanted to know the origin of ‘spaz’ in America. What am I getting wrong here?!
Comments
The same reason yall eat beans for breakfast, cultural differences. Now stop being such a spaz with all this posting and go fry some tomatoes.
In America, a spaz is someone who is hyper, and not necessarily someone with ADHD.
in the US, it’s almost a term of affection, often said of kids with lots of energy.
Spaz doesn’t come from “spastic” but “spasm” which could have been a disability thing but also describes the jerky movements someone freaking out makes which is what we associate it with more than a disabled person. So eventually we started saying not spasm over some fact or news when they reacted negatively by freaking out. It became pretty clear that some people were prone to freaking out when told things so eventually we started referring to these freakouts or being one prone to freaking out as “a spaz”.
And that’s how that word came to be. It basically broke away from its origin and therefore lost its connection to the spasms, which might have been able to connect to disability, but instead got associated with the idea of freaking out.
Kinda like how c*nt is considered in the UK.
Some people do take exception to the word “spaz” but Americans don’t have the bandwidth to care. We’re still desperately trying to hold onto “R***rded.” It’s pathetic.
Yall don’t think cunt is offensive but over there it’ll piss off most people.
Different uses, history, and meaning.
Idk. The same reason you all use Cunt in every other sentence but here in the US it’s considered highly offensive. Regional differences
Oh my God, I grew up being called spaz. This was the 60s and 70s. I just assumed you’d be cancelled if you called someone a spaz. The word derives from spastic.
It’s not unlike how the word cunt is almost a term of endearment in the UK, but it might earn you a slap across the face in the US.
It often is. False premise.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used explicitly to describe someone with physical disabilities in the USA. The word spastic might be used, but not in a derogatory way. I have heard it used to describe behavioral patterns, which might be especially related to people with, for example, ADHD. But normally when it is used that way, the speaker may not know that the person they are speaking about has ADHD, or might have a poor understanding of ADHD itself.
Which is to say, my best guess is that the word does not have the derogatory history toward disabilities here that it sounds like it had in the UK.
Obligatory “the USA is a large country with lots of regional linguistic differences and I cannot speak for all of it. This is merely a reflection of my experience.”
In the U.S. I think we just relate it to muscle spasms, which anyone can get, not to people with cerebral palsy or some other medical condition. The word is largely disassociated from any medical meaning for Americans.
Anyone growing up in the U.S. in the last 40-50 years has heard the word consistently in a lighthearted way as someone doing things in a random, impulsive, or silly way. I’d say it’s in general use here and not considered offensive. Even calling someone a spaz is a lighthearted jest, kind of like calling someone silly.
I’m just finding out in this moment it’s considered offensive in the UK. I honestly never knew.
There is an old saying: “The fish rots from the head”.
You voted a “spaz” into the highest seat in the land … makes sense it’s acceptable.
FYI: neither the word “spaz” or it’s mother-word “spastic” have been accepted or used in Australia for almost half a century now.
Oh, it’s offensive to the people you say it to, but they’re too busy being a Spaz to notice
The first SpongeBob movie literally uses “knucklehead McSpazz-a-tron” as one of its most recognizable lines (which, reading this post, I now feel like might have been edited out or changed in the UK version).
Spazz in the US is really just something to call someone whose acting silly, like a kid who’s hyper on sugar or throwing a fit or something and “spazzing” out
(Unless Spaz and Spazz are two different things)
Spastic to me has always been someone who was all over the place . Never thought of it as someone with disabilities.
My co-worker told me it’s offensive. I wasn’t aware and use it.
It is. Beyonce literally had to edit the word out of her last album because of the backlash.
But generally speaking Americans are ableist as fuck.
Is “Mental” considered offensive in the UK these days? That doesn’t get much use here. (In America)
I try and just use “Wild” in place of all the casual variations of Crazy or Insane.
My best friend’s dog is named Spaz. Never even considered it could be offensive and I definitely assume he didn’t either.
Sped is the offensive one here. It derives from special education, for kids with disabilities.
Spaz here is more like someone who can’t control their energy, which can be offensive in some sense, but it doesn’t have the same connotation here for everyone.
In my experience (American) spastic is only used to mean random and unpredictable, I’ve never known it to have anything to do with disabilities. A spaz is just someone who is random and quirky.
Nowadays every noun derived from an adjective is an offensive term to call someone in the US. The term “spaz” is seen much less offensive here than in the UK, but it has the exact same meaning that you described for the UK. In context here the word typically means someone is being silly, absent minded, or unpredictable and that context has generally taken over as the colloquial meaning of the word, so it generally comes off as less offensive. However, the PC police may still get straight up your ass if you say it in the presence of the wrong person.
I honestly haven’t heard anyone use that term since the early to mid 90s when I was in high school.
Americans are so rude that little things like that seem almost nice
Say cunt over here half as often as you do there and I assure you that you’ll figure it out. Different places are offended by different things. There’s places with child marriage, places where you can be killed for showing your hair, places where using your left hand to serve food is highly offensive.
That’s just how it is. Cunt.
Haven’t you seen Meatballs with Bill Murray?
I’m a martyr to a spastic colon.
I used to shop in the spastic society charity shop with my gran.
That Kevin from down the road is a total spastic, he was licking the windows and everything.
Aw man don’t be a spaz.
Smithy had a proper spaz attack cos kipper gave him a load of cheek when he forgot his footy shoes.
Can you spare any change? I’m collecting for the spastics.
Are some of the many uses this word had in my day. I wouldn’t use it anymore, but sometimes in my head when someone is kicking off my inner voice totally says they are a spaz.
IMHO, because it hasn’t been used with any frequency since the 90’s.
It’s considered offensive among people who care about offensive words. That group is ever shrinking unfortunately.
I think it’s offensive but people just say it anyway. At least that’s the case in Canada
Pretty sure spaz is just synonymous with American
Your information is behind…can’t say that word..had a musician include it in her lyrics have to change it …Yes, Lizzo and Beyoncé have changed the word “spaz” in their songs after criticism from disability rights advocates. Lizzo changed the lyric in her song “Grrrls,” and Beyoncé altered the lyrics on her album “Renaissance,” specifically in the song “Heated”. …your pop culture information needs updated 15 years
Spaz actually used to be an insult here as well several decades ago, according to my father who states it was insulting when he was in high school in the 80’s. But like a lot of curse words and insults, the more it was used the more common and less offensive it got. Nowadays it’s shifted to just describing someone as energetic or goofy. Slang continues to change through the years, and it can change on different timelines depending on where you live
I am a relatively worldly person who was born in the late seventies in the US and never learned that the word was a derivation of spastic until I was almost 30. I then stopped using it, of course. I was actually a bit horrified to learn that it could be a slur.
If you had asked me for an example of a “spaz” as I understood the word in childhood, I would have answered, “Andy Dick.” If you know who that is, you might get an idea of what it seemed to mean in the vernacular. In fact, his Newsradio character was regularly called one by the character played by Joe Rogan.
I agree with those who say that it was used in reference to hyperactivity or someone over reacting and freaking out over very little.
We call new guys in BJJ spazzes all the time. It fits.
Spaz is derogatory in Canada.
Cuz Florida man is a thing
In my experience, spastic is literally just a description.
The word itself contains no judgment. The body is experiencing spasms. Or, less literally, the mind is behaving is if it has a cramp / spasms and is not working well.
From what I’ve heard “spaz” became a term of ridicule because of its use in a TV show called “Blue Peter” having a story about a guy with CP, which backfired as kids adopted the word as an insult. That show didn’t air in the U.S. so the slang version of the word evolved along different lines.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4902432.stm