• 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