spaz
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From spastic.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /spæz/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -æz
Noun
spaz (plural spazzes) (slang, derogatory, offensive)
- An incompetent or physically uncoordinated person; a spazmo.
- 1981, Stephen King, The Jaunt:
- In fact, it was the view of the scientists now in charge […] that the freakier they were, the better; if a mental spaz could go through and come out all right […] then the process was probably safe for the executives, politicians, and fashion models of the world.
- 2006, Tiger Woods, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- “I was so in control from tee to green, the best I’ve played for years… But as soon as I got on the green I was a spaz.”
- A hyperactive, erratically behaving person.
- A tantrum or fit.
- A person with spastic paralysis, spastic cerebral palsy or epilepsy
Usage notes
- The offensiveness of this term and of spastic differs throughout the Anglosphere. In the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia, it is highly offensive. The term is more casually used in the U.S., but is still offensive to some disabled people. See spastic for more.[1][2][3]
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
stupid person
hyperactive person
incompetent person
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See also
Verb
spaz (third-person singular simple present spazzes, present participle spazzing, simple past and past participle spazzed)
- (colloquial, derogatory, offensive) To have a tantrum or fit.
- (slang) To malfunction, go on the fritz.
Usage notes
The sense “to malfunction” is not considered offensive, but still may cause offense due to connections with spastic.
Synonyms
- (have a tantrum): freak out
Derived terms
Translations
have a tantrum
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malfunction
References
- ^ Murphy, M Lynne (28 February 2007) “spastic, learning disability”, in Separated by a Common Language[1], retrieved 17 August 2007
- ^ “BBC worst word vote”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[2], 20 March 2007 (last accessed), archived from the original on 20 March 2007
- ^ The s-word, by Damon Rose, BBC News, 12 April 2006