We also no longer use the word niggardly - even though its etymology is completely different from the other n-word that sounds similar. We somehow survived that

We also no longer use the word niggardly - even though its etymology is completely different from the other n-word that sounds similar. We somehow survived that. Likewise we no longer use the word retard as in I need to retard this engine's timing so it runs richer. Yet both of these are words I grew up with and guess what? We're still here and our engines are running just fine, thank you. I'm old enough to have heard with my own ears that language evolves. The set of words used today are a different set of words than were used when I was growing up and the set of words that were being used when I was growing up was a different set than were used when my grandparents were growing up. You'd think a bunch of technology people wanting to "change the world" would understand this better. Anyway, to my ears griping about language changing is like griping about loud music: you're just getting old. As my father always said getting old stinks but it sure beats the alternative. Now get off my lawn! P.S. - when I was growing up you heard the word stinks a lot for where you'd now use the word sucks. But sucks used in such a pejorative manner was considered a 4-letter word due to its reference to fellatio. Like I said, language changes and evolves.