k96822 wrote:
I don't mean to defend him here -- he meant it as an insult and that certainly seems clear to me after watching
the clip, but I think we are too sensitive about that word. It has the literal meaning of being delayed and impeded.
The word "ret*d", used as a verb, indicates an action intended to delay another action, as when one ret*ds the spark in an old-fashioned distributor (in order to delay the transmission of the spark to the spark plugs, to permit optimal compression of the air/fuel mix in an internal-combustion engine). It's seldom used in that sense any more, given that every internal-combustion engine manufactured currently uses computer controls for the entire combustion cycle in order to improve efficiency and reduce pollution, so the spark is automatically ret*d or advanced as needed. It can also be used as a fancy way to refer to slowing someone or something down ("retarding their progress").
Used as a noun, the word has no literal meaning - it is a slang term, used as a derogatory reference to the developmentally-disabled (or, more broadly, to anyone of whom the speaker disapproves, but of whom he has no specific complaint - see modern slang usage of "gay" or "stupid"). The speaker clearly intended to use it to denigrate his supposed charges, the autistic children he claimed to have cared for (a claim which, it would appear, has since been disproved). It was meant to be insulting - either the speaker did not care about angering an entire segment of the population with his blatant bigotry, or more likely he didn't think any of us would hear about it (I personally don't watch the show, and were it not for the mention here, I doubt I would have ever known of this incident).
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