Abstract

The article examines the treatment of twenty-five words for illness and disability in twenty monolingual English dictionaries. The selection of works examined includes learners’, collegiate, and general-purpose dictionaries, both British and American. The analysis focusses on the indications of offensiveness, if any, that lexicographers have included in the entries. The lexemes studied have fallen out of favour in recent decades (e.g. handicapped, midget, retard, retarded, spastic) or do not follow the principles of person-first language, in particular the recommendation that patients should not be named after their conditions (e.g. infirm, lunatic, paralytic, syphilitic as nouns). The treatment of individual terms varies quite considerably from one volume to another. Some dictionaries have clearly adopted a policy of warning readers against almost any word referring to a person with a health issue. Others are more selective in their assignment of labels and usage notes. Discussions about person-first language have clearly influenced many of the dictionaries examined.

中文翻译：

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英文单语字典中的疾病和残疾单词处理

摘要

本文探讨了二十种单语英语词典对二十五个单词的疾病和残障处理。所选择的作品包括英美两国的学习者，大学和通用词典。该分析着重于字典作者在条目中包括的冒犯性指示（如果有）。研究的词位在最近几十年里失宠（如残疾人，侏儒，延缓，推迟，痉挛性）或不按人一语的原则，特别是建议患者不要自己的条件来命名（如体弱，疯子，麻痹，梅毒为名词）。从一个卷到另一个卷，各个术语的处理差异很大。一些词典明确采用了一项政策，警告读者几乎不要使用任何提及健康问题的人的词。其他人在分配标签和使用说明时更具选择性。有关以人为本的语言的讨论已明显影响了所检查的许多词典。