Treatment of words for illness and disability in monolingual English dictionaries

Abstract

Abstract The article examines the treatment of twenty-five words for illness and disability in twenty monolingual English dictionaries. The selection of works examined includes learners’, collegiate, and general-purpose dictionaries, both British and American. The analysis focusses on the indications of offensiveness, if any, that lexicographers have included in the entries. The lexemes studied have fallen out of favour in recent decades (e.g. handicapped, midget, retard, retarded, spastic) or do not follow the principles of person-first language, in particular the recommendation that patients should not be named after their conditions (e.g. infirm, lunatic, paralytic, syphilitic as nouns). The treatment of individual terms varies quite considerably from one volume to another. Some dictionaries have clearly adopted a policy of warning readers against almost any word referring to a person with a health issue. Others are more selective in their assignment of labels and usage notes. Discussions about person-first language have clearly influenced many of the dictionaries examined.