[Eugene Volokh, May 12, 2008 at 5:24pm] Trackbacks
Lame:

I'd always thought that "lame" as in "lame argument" or "lame excuse" was relatively modern youth slang. Then I ran across it in a 19th-century source, and so decided to check the OED. It turns out that the definition of "[m]aimed, halting; imperfect or defective, unsatisfactory as wanting a part or parts," "[s]aid esp[ecially] of an argument, excuse, account, narrative, or the like" dates back at least to Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida: "blame me not if any word [of my work] be lame." Then there's Shakespeare, in Othello, speaking of a "most lame and impotent conclusion." Most lame, dude! And Swift, in Gulliver's Travels, "The theory of comets, which at present is very lame and defective."

On reflection, it shouldn't be surprising — why shouldn't earlier centuries think of the same figurative usages that modern Americans use? Still, I didn't expect it.

teqjack (mail):
I must admit surprise at your surprise. How long has the word existed? At least that long, the fact that a lame horse was of little use must have made use of it applied to other areas of life natural.
5.12.2008 7:03pm
wt (www):
The use of lame is broader today than just imperfect, defective, or unsatisfying. It also means uncool in a manner worthy of derision. What, you're not going out for drinks because you have to hang out with your girlfriend? Lame dude.
5.12.2008 7:20pm
Smokey:
I always thought lame referred to Elvis' gold lame suits.
5.12.2008 7:48pm
Fub:
Smokey wrote at 5.12.2008 6:48pm:
I always thought lame referred to Elvis' gold lame suits.
No, it referred to Elvis' lame gold suits.

But, if the Mickey Mouse Copyright act had been passed before 1956, then W. W. Fosdick's estate would be collecting lots of royalties from Elvis. Now, that would be lame.
5.12.2008 8:10pm
Just Dropping By (mail):
always thought lame referred to Elvis' gold lame suits.

That would be "lamé".
5.12.2008 8:30pm
Dan Simon (mail) (www):
For what it's worth, according to the Chaucer concordance, the Canterbury Tales contain 7 occurrences of the word, "rad"--although for some reason, none are followed by "dude".
5.12.2008 8:31pm
Sasha Volokh (mail) (www):
Note that the usage "Troilus and Cressida" for Chaucer's work is rare, even among modern translations. "Troilus and Criseyde" is the preferred name. Those who were in my Troilus and Criseyde reading group last year did, in fact, encounter this usage!
5.12.2008 8:46pm
KWC (mail):
I think using the work "lame" is akin to using the word "retarded" or "gay" to describe something. It is offensive to those who are, in fact, lame.
5.12.2008 8:48pm
KWC (mail):
See, Eugene, you could have just called your brother!
5.12.2008 8:50pm
83048304:
KWC, you could have just "called" yourself!
5.13.2008 1:18am
Brett A. Thomas (mail) (www):
My wife has long been a horse aficionado, but due to other commitments and the like, didn't ride for the first 13 years or so of our relationship, together. Recently, she started riding, again, first on a rental horse named Tribute ("Trib"). One day, I came home from work and said, "How was your ride, today?"

Disappointed, she replied, "Aw, man, Trib was lame, today."

I said, "Oh, what did he do?" She started laughing and explained that she'd meant it literally, and not figuratively.

Prior to that, I'd realized horses could have leg troubles, and that it was called "being lame", but I hadn't also realized that such a condition <i>was</i> lame.
5.13.2008 1:50am
Mary Katherine Day-Petrano (mail):
"Lame" means in its most ordinary usage, a lame horse. Such as a lame equine disability service horse belonging to an autistic American that was attacked at a PGA Tours-sponsors horse facility with horse feed contaimined with aflatoxins resulting in a catastrophic irreversible founder "sinker" -- anyone who wants to know more may contact "AnnTM" the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals clerk who wrote with her co-blog participants how the disability service animal and the disabled autistic would be stalked, the same clerk who had a problem with the U.S. Supreme Court deciding PGA Tours in favor of the golfer contrary to said law clerk's HLS law Review article, the same law clerk who worked under the supervision of our U.S. DOJ counterterrorism/Criminal Div. Chief.

Or, contact the DOJ Chief -- perhaps he can explain how an autistic person's disability service horse became irreversibly "lame" with a founder "sinker."

We are all waiting for how the USA Patriot Act authorizes a civil rights attack on a disabled autistic person's equine disability service horse prescribed by her medical doctors as her medicine.
5.15.2008 1:02am