• laverabe@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    illegal alien is such an offensive phrase… they’re not aliens, they’re homo sapiens. Anyone who still uses the term is insane.

    • DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      The word “alien” was used for people from a foreign country well before it was used for extra-terrestrials.

      • laverabe@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        yeah but it ceased being used 8 years ago by the US government because of it’s use as a derogatory term and the dehumanizing effect it has.

        Words tend to have a liquid definition over a period of decades. Take the british term for cigarettes that most people know and what it now means; innocent words tend to very easily morph and are weaponized in a way that is distant from their original meaning. Seemingly moreso in modern times.

        • Amoxtli@thelemmy.clubOP
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          3 months ago

          Middle English: via Old French from Latin alienus ‘belonging to another’, from alius ‘other

    • Neuromancer@lemm.eeM
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      3 months ago

      Huh? The word alien doesn’t mean from outer space. They are illegal aliens.