You not being able to say a given word is incredibly minor in the English language, which has a dozen synonyms for everything. Someone being offended by a given word has a far bigger impact and longer-lasting effect. So, given that we have goals in our Constitution about, y'know, getting on with each other - isn't it better to take the minor trouble to avoid upsetting someone?

hS

I don't know of any words or phrases which are acceptable in the UK but insulting or offensive in the US. I'm sure there are some, but I don't personally know what they are.

So if I were to use one - let's imagine the word 'mardy' is a heinous insult over there (it's a Northern dialect term for 'grumpy', for the record) - and one of our American Boarders said they were offended by it, do you know what I'd do?

The answer is 'do my best to stop using it on the Board'. Not 'argue that people shouldn't be offended by it because it's not offensive to me'. I think the second approach is entirely backwards: it's saying 'my right to say a word supersedes the right of people not to see offensive words on the Board'.

And yeah, that goes for things that aren't simply words and phrases. If I say that the Boarder Summertide is 'overreacting', and Summertide replies with a huge rant about how she's spent her entire life being told she overreacts - then I'll stop saying that about her, even when it's objectively true, because it offends her and I'm... not here to offend people.

hS

Because inevitably if it gets drawn out the odds of me unintentionally offending someone will likely skyrocket. First and foremost, I will start by saying I have absolutely no intention of offending anyone, if I do I am preemptively apologizing. Now on to my point.

I think the real crux of the issue is not the word itself. It is the intent. See it is something that I have noticed clearly in the US. In this current era there is a cultural consensus to treat everything with "kid gloves" so to speak. We are too afraid of offending anyone that it really ascribes more power to the word than it otherwise would have. A perfect example of this is the reaction of a great many people in the United States around the time Djano Unchained was released. There were a great many people up in arms over the repeated use of the N-word in the film. Now for those of you that do not know, that refers to the word "nigger". To provide some more context, it seems to me that the use of that word, in the US at least, is perfectly acceptable for African Americans to use, but often times the moment a, usually European-American, mentions the word, people lose their minds over it. I also remember, how I was terrified in one of my classes years back, and we were reading Huck Finn. The word comes up repeatedly throughout the story, and I had to read it aloud. I was terrified because of the stigma attached to the word. And there is the rub. A word itself only has the meaning which humans give it. I do not think a word itself should be considered offensive. It, in my view, is restricted to the intent. For example returning to the particular word at issue, spastic, has (some evidence suggests) been used to mean hyperactive and the other things World Jumper mentioned previously since the 1950s. I understand that it is considered offensive in the UK, but to that I ask, why should that particular world view be foisted upon everyone else? Frankly if we use words that might be offensive, the overall language that can be used will be limited. There are too many words that are innocuous to one culture, but highly offensive to another. Taking an example going the other way, the word "fag". From what I understand in the British Isles, it is a largely innocuous word for cigarette. But in the US, it has most recently become a highly offensive word for a homosexual, do I think that the use of that word should be banned, because it is offensive? No. Because I think it really does come down the intent. It is clear that the OP had no intention of offending anyone. I think the better approach is to focus on the intent.

Now again I did not intend to offend anyone, and if I did I am sorry. And that is the point. I think the focus should not be on the word itself, but on the intent. To kind of close it let us say that a group of One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eaters arrive on Earth. Lets say that a group of people then create the word Smerple to refer to those Purple People Eaters, that word should not be offensive just because it exists, but the offense should only be attached if there is rancor, hatred, derision, etc. attached to that word. And that's where I am going to end, because I can already tell where this would go if I continue. So again, I mean no offense, and I think intent should be the focus. Not the word itself.