Post #2077403
2026-04-02 13:44 UTC
@harmonia_amanda I'm not so comfortable about the etymology of "autism" either, and I'm kind of surprised that I'm not hearing anyone talking about it. *Surely* I'm not the only autistic person who likes reading about words' etymologies and occasionally having opinions about them? 🤷♂️
In case you wondered, the Russian and Hebrew words for it are the same as English and French. The Arabic one is different, and the English Wiktionary gives a good idea of what it is.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%AF#Noun
Replies (1)
-
@harmonia_amanda@eldritch.cafe 2026-04-02 13:48
@aharoni for me it somewhat fall into the "reclaimed slur" category but yes that etymology is... urrrgh. But at this point, when there is such a push against "not really autistic" people (we are, you just have no idea what autism looks like), I don't want to get away from the word.