spaz

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From spastic.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /spæz/

Noun

spaz (plural spazzes)

  1. (slang, derogatory, offensive in Britain) A stupid or incompetent person.
    • 2006, Tiger Woods:
      “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.”
  2. (slang, derogatory, offensive in Britain) A hyperactive person.
  3. (slang, derogatory, offensive in Britain) A tantrum, a fit.

Usage notes

The offensiveness of this term and of spastic differs somewhat between the US and the UK. In the UK, they are very offensive; The term is more commonly used in the U.S. but is still offensive to many in the disability community. see spastic for more.[1][2][3]

Translations

See also

Verb

spaz (third-person singular simple present spazzes, present participle spazzing, simple past and past participle spazzed)

  1. (slang, derogatory, offensive) To have a tantrum or fit.
  2. (slang) To malfunction, go on the fritz.

Usage notes

The sense “to malfunction” is the only sense that is not insulting to the object, and is cognate to spasm (compare seize up), but still may cause offense due to connections with spastic.

Synonyms

Translations

References
  1. Murphy, M Lynne (2007-02-28), “spastic, learning disability”, in Separated by a Common Language‎, retrieved 2007-08-17
  2. “BBC worst word vote”, in (Please provide the title of the work)‎, accessed 20 March 2007, archived from the original on 20 March 2007
  3. The s-word, by Damon Rose, BBC News, 12 April 2006

Anagrams
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