Friday, December 03, 2004

Reuters.com:'Master/slave' Most Politically Incorrect Phrase
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The computer term "master/slave," which was banned as racially offensive by a Los Angeles County purchasing department, was named the most politically incorrect term of the year on Thursday.
Among other terms on the top 10 list of politically charged words and phrases, issued by the word usage group Global Language Monitor, were "non-same sex marriage" to describe heterosexual unions, "waitron" for waiter or waitress and "higher being" for God, a term some people found too religious.
[more]

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I'll go this article one better: "heterosexual marriage" is a redundancy, i.e., an unnecessary modifier, because there isn't any other kind--at least, in 49 states and the DC. Only in Massachusetts do people need to specify which flavor of marriage is being talked about. It's like the old "49 state cars" that could pass smog device inspections in all states except California.

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