>"these days" This has ever been the case. As one example, you can look at the cyclic nature of words used to describe someone who, according to current terms

>"these days" This has ever been the case. As one example, you can look at the cyclic nature of words used to describe someone who, according to current terms, has an "intellectual disability": Idiot Moron Imbecile Retarded These words and others have, at various times, been used in a specific clinical context. As those words seeped out of the clinical setting into the general public's awareness they started being used in more generic, looser, non clinical settings, often as insults. When that happened-- often when the associated stigma gained so much weight that it was difficult to use as a unloaded clinical term-- new terms started to be used. "Retarded" is the most recent to reach its EOL. Phonemic complexity seems to make this process a little more difficult: Intellectual Disability may be too much of a mouthful to easily become a quick insult. The evolution & etymology of these terms is actually a bit more complex than this, but it gives a rough sketch of the phenomenon. It's just the natural cycle of language use.