Talk:special

The word "special" is increasingly being used for children with mental retardation or other disabilities and sometimes even for grown ups with this problem and is also being used in a pejorative way to indicate that the target person has very low intelligence.So these meanings may also be included.117.198.49.218 02:58, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree that the word should be here, but the current entry actually appears to conflate two related meanings of the word; these are actually separate. One is the euphemism as used by organizations such as the "Special Olympics". This is not slang or pejorative, presumably in fact the word was originally intended to be the opposite of pejorative. The other sense is related, but is a slang term that turns this euphemism into a pejorative. The example given on this page seems to imply the latter sense, but by using the term "Special Olympics" (the actual name of an organization) it instead implies the former meaning. --86.144.101.159 04:46, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Almost any word can be used pejoratively. Euphemisms are particularly good targets for ironic. sarcastic, pejorative use. We try to exclude the evaluative component of words like that and let people's tone of voice or context communicate it. It is not intrinsic to the word. In contrast a word like Nazi has come to have an exclusively negative sense when it is used as a label for someone not in the original Nazi party. DCDuring TALK 15:26, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Is the expression esp. short for especially? This often appears in footnotes in technical books and scholarly books. L. Thomas W. (talk) 14:52, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

on special

On special (North America, Australia, New Zealand) being sold at a reduced price --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:22, 22 July 2021 (UTC)