Spastic

Derived via Latin from the Greek spastikos ("drawing in" or "tugging"), the word spastic refers to an alteration in muscle tone affected by the medical condition spasticity, which is seen in spastic diplegia and many other forms of cerebral palsy and also in terms such as "spastic colon".

Colloquially, spastic can be pejorative; though severity of this differs between the United States and the United Kingdom. In the UK "spastic" is considered by the general population as an offensive way to directly refer to disabled people.

The medical term "spastic" came into use to describe cerebral palsy.The Spastics Society, a UK charity for people with cerebral palsy, was founded in 1951.

However, the word began to be used as an insult and became a term of abuse used to imply stupidity or physical ineptness: one who is uncoordinated or incompetent, or a fool. It was often colloquially abbreviated to shorter forms such as "spaz".

Although the word has a much longer history, its derogatory use grew considerably in the 1980s and this is sometimes attributed to the BBC children's TV show Blue Peter; during the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), several episodes of Blue Peter featured a man named Joey Deacon with cerebral palsy (described as a "spastic"). Phrases such as "joey", "deacon", and "spaz" became widely used insults amongst children at that time.

In 1994, the same year that Conservative MP Terry Dicks referred to himself in a House of Commons debate as "a spastic with cerebral palsy", the Spastics Society changed its name to Scope. The word "spastic" has been largely erased from popular English usage and is deemed unacceptable to use outside of specific medical contexts, thus reducing stigmatisation of the condition. However, UK schoolchildren allegedly developed a derogatory adaptation of the Spastic Society's new name, "scoper". The current understanding of the word is well-illustrated by a BBC survey in 2003, which found that "spastic" was the second most offensive term in the UK relating to disability (retard was deemed most offensive). In 2007, Lynne Murphy, a linguist at the University of Sussex, described the term as being "one of the most taboo insults to a British ear". Despite the meaning remaining unchanged, recognition of the offensive nature of the words "spaz" or "spastic" are less widely admitted in the United States and they are still used in mainstream media and conversation.

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