Is "Cripple" meant to be a derogatory term?

Question

I've heard handicapped people referred to as "Cripples." It sounds like a name that means you're looking down on these people, but I'm not sure. So, does anyone know whether or not "Cripple" is meant to be derogatory?

Answer 1

In my opinion, I don't believe it was meant to be a derogatory term when it was first coined rather just a way to describe somebody who was physically challenged. I think over time and as attitudes have changed, it has become a term that is more politically incorrect than it is derogatory. Those who are physically challenged would be more likely to see it as a derogatory term now than in the past given the fact that we now have more appropriate terms or labels to give people. That being said, any label given to people can be construed to be derogatory if you think about it. In your question you use the word handicapped and to many physically challenged people, that is a derogatory term. I once heard a man call another man a "Mexican" and he was indeed Mexican but he took it as a derogatory because he gave it a negative connotation.
To make a long story short, yes it probably is considered derogatory now.

Answer 2

I am physically disabled...I have a terrible knee and I AM crippled. I do NOT consider it a derogatory term. ANY word can be used as a derogatory term if you want to..."that damn cripple"..."that damn handicap"...our country is getting crazy with all this. Feel free to call me crippled because I am.

Answer 3

When I was a child in the 1950's in England the word 'Cripple' was quite a common term to describe someone with a physical disability. The name 'cripple' is meant to be applied to someone who was lame and comes from the old English word crypel meaning 'creep' as lame people did creep rather than walk due to their disability. Naturally at that time there were many people who had been injured in the war either from fighting or from the extensive bombing that England suffered who were commonly known as being crippled. To call someone a cripple in those days was not considered derogatory but rather descriptive. However as time went by and around the mid 1960's the term deteriorated in a rather slang sense and was used to describe someone considered inferior very much like we would now use the word 'nerd'. This came about as people who were thought of in such a way were known as 'creeps', a term used both in Britain and America. As political correctness arrived so the word became unfashionable and disabled people became known as just that 'disabled'.

The Beatles famously used the word as a signal to their road managers when they wished unwanted guests in their dressing rooms to be removed. They would simply look at the people they wanted to be excluded, nod at their road crew and say 'Cripples' which signified immediate ejection for the intruders.

Answer 4

I would have to say it depends on the context of how it's used. If someone was defending a handicapped person and said, "But he/she's crippled!" I wouldn't think that would be derogatory. But if someone stereotyped all handicapped people and said something offensive and called them cripples, that would be derogatory.

Answer 5

Yeah cripple is most definitely a derogatory term. Groups like the A.C.L.U. have found a way to make every word derogatory. Cripple was just a shortened version of Crippled which was fine to say up until a few years ago.

Janitor = Janitor
Custodial Engineer = Janitor

Go figure... it was just easier to say Janitor.

OH... Don't go parking in those CRIP spots ya hear?

Answer 6

I don't think originally it was ment to be derogatory. It was simply a description of a person that was crippled. Anything said with an insulting intonation could be taken as derogatory.

Answer 7

I m crippled; I got polio in 1952. I prefer saying I m crippled to being handicapped. There is nothing handi about being capped. Nuff said. Shonnie Emerson, 11/18/16

Answer 8

Yeah, it's not politically correct. But political correctness is killing this country so feel free to call them anything you want. Just kidding. "cripple" is a derogatory term.

Answer 9

It was never meant to be, and we still say "crippled children" but it has now taken on a taint of being derogatory, like deaf, or dumb, or blind. We had an attack of idiocy about twenty years back wherein we decided that naming things with nicer names would make then nicer things. so now we're not dead, we're passed away, or passed on, or even gone - we're not blind, we're visually challenged, etc. It is idiocy - or excuse me, it is intelligently challenged.

Answer 10

As opposed to using the term Cripple... you might want to use the term Physically Challenged. It is more respectful to those less able to do the things you do.
The ACLU is an organization that not only is about victims rights, it also educates others to the facts surrounding deformities, physical disabilities, mongolism, speech impairments...etc.
Might be worth the e-mail to their website to be better informed.