heya haddock! hope you're having a good day. so, i was talking about the word "triggered" with someone who uses it casually, and i told them that they shouldn't use it as it trivialises mental illness, however they said that words develop new meanings over time, for example trigger wasn't originally a term that had to do with mental illness, so "triggered" has now developed the new meaning "offended". (1/2)
i wanted to ask you as you have a background in linguistics, and i was wondering what you think of this? i understand if you would prefer to not talk about this though. have a good day!
Hello and hope you are well, too! Thank you for being so thoughtful - yes, I am okay talking about this. And I do think it’s an important matter to discuss, too, so that we can understand the importance of our everyday word usage and how it impacts the people around us.
So it is always true that words constantly develop new meanings. For instance, back around the 1200s, the word “silly” used to mean “happy.” It could also, a little later, mean such things as “blessed,” “pious,” or “innocent.” By the late 1300s, it had undergone a semantic shift called pejoration, and developed the less flattering meanings of “pitiable” and “weak.” And since the 1500s, it’s been used along the lines of the empty-headed, foolish definition we’re more familiar with. That’s quite the shift over time! And yet we can trace the word “silly” through all these meanings.
But just because we can say “This word has meaning changes,” doesn’t always mean it’s fair to justify controversial usage of a word. The fact that “triggered” is controversial says something significant about the state of its current accepted meanings in society. The fact that you, many others, and I do find offense in the word “triggered” being used in the “offended” meaning… says something about how we should regard our choice of language.
The word c*nt, way back in the days, wasn’t obscene. It was a more general anatomical term. Now it is obscene, and contemporary usage of the word dictates we probably shouldn’t speak it freely. And r*tarded used to be neutral as well, but it’s certainly an offensive word today. You really shouldn’t use r*tard today because it’s that unpleasant of a slur! Just because words have had or have or will develop new meanings doesn’t mean we can say we’re in the clear when we use those words in our speech. We have to be sensitive to how the word takes place in our society today.
And the thing with “triggered” is that, in society today, it is not a word that can be thrown about respectfully. When used to mean “offended,” it’s not a neutral term in the same way that “insulted” is neutral. Sociolinguistics, semantics, connotations, and how words can be offensive to society… is a thing.
The use of the word “triggered” to mean “offended” is a very new phenomenon. VERY new phenomenon - as in, only the last few years. Not only that, but how the word became to mean “offended” is through an unkind jibe: by downplaying the psychological suffering of individuals who are triggered by circumstances, by almost suggesting these peoples’ triggerings are childish, not serious, or unreal. It’s a word suggesting that people are easily offended, flip out about things that aren’t actually a problem, etc. And while there are going to be some individuals who act that way by pretending to be triggered when they are not actually mentally ill, that doesn’t make the “offended” meaning of “triggered” any more respectful. It’s quite disrespectful. It’s ignoring those who truly do get triggered from their psychological struggles. As you say, it’s trivializing people with mental illness. In many ways, it’s mocking, disregarding, and disbelieving them. That’s the entire point of why the word “triggered” came to mean “offended” in the last few years!
This very recent history of how the word has been “changed” isn’t some neutral usage of “offended.” Me saying, “Oh, you’re offended!” in a jubilant manner is nowhere close to the shout-out, “LOL, TRIGGERED!!!” There is a huge difference between how people use “insulted” to mean “offended” versus how people use “triggered” to mean “offended.” The word “insulted” is neutral and can be used respectfully to mean “offended.” The offended definition of “triggered” is NOT neutral - it’s pejorative. It’s being used in an ableist, offensive manner - and making jokes about the word is by nature making fun of people who are triggered from their mental illness.
It’s not that “triggered” means “offended” nice and neutrally - it means “offended” in an offensive way.
Maybe three hundred years down the road, the word “triggered” will have gone through the somewhat rare process of amelioration and become a neutral term meaning “offended.” But that’s nowhere close to its meaning now. The raw meaning of where “triggered” got derived in an unkind way is extremely fresh and potent.
If many people are telling you that a word is offensive - aka, what’s going on with “triggered” - then that word is, in fact, legitimately offensive.
