#appraisals

capricorn-0mnikorn:

And it’s a better fit for here:

I used to be confused about why “Handicap” became offensive, too (as I remember it, the movement to stop using it started picking up steam in the early 1990s). And then, a few years ago, I went on a deep dive into the history of it for part of a book I was working on (My main source for this info was an article in an academic journal I found online that’s now behind a paywall {sigh}).

But this is what I remember. I love it as part of word history, because it says so much about how we perceive things, and how we choose the words we do.

Anyway:

TheFolkHistory of the word says that’s because it comes from the phrase “Cap-in-Hand” – in other words, begging, and gives the suggestion that the only thing disabled people are good for is begging.

Thetruehistory of the word is that it started out associated with sports (Golf, and Horse Racing) and referred to an extra difficulty the stronger competitor had to deal with in order to even up the stakes for the weaker competitors.

Around the turn of the 20th century, it started being applied to children with intellectual impairments, and framing their lives as being burdened by their limitations. It might have started out as neutral at the time, but it quickly morphed first to a term of pity porn, and a derogatory term (The children are burdened by their impairments, and they are, in turn, a burden on Society).

At the end of World War 1, the word “Handicap” began to be applied to all disabilities, especially to the wounded soldiers coming back from the War, and applying for government assistance. And then, the military system spread to the civilian sector, and the way states ran their welfare systems.

And so, by the middle of the 20th century, the word “Handicap” came to be associated with bureaucracy and having to submit to “experts” examining us, to decide how much help we deserve, and how many hoops we have to jump through to get it (some things never change). And so that feelslike begging with “Cap in hand,” even if that isn’t where the word actually comes from.

And then, by the ‘90s, the “Social Model of Disability” began to take hold – that’s the idea that we’re not only disabled by our own impairments, but also by how our society is built (lack of accessible housing, inflexible employment requirements, etc.) and the word “Handicapped” implies that our impairments are burdens we carry for ourselves, and “Disability” doesn’t.

So that’s why the consensus was gradually reached that “Disability” was the better word.

(Sorry this got long; I’m something of a word and history geek)

Reply from @captain-acab:

so what’s the actual etymology of the word “handicap”? Does the “cap” have something to do with capping (as in limiting) the performance of the fastest racehorse or whatever? 

Good Question!

It actually goes back to an English betting / swapping / trading game, called “Hand in the Cap,” or “Hand-in-Cap,” first recorded around 1650 (Though the game itself might be older).

And the rules were thus:

• Two people who have different items they want to trade (to make this a modernized example, let’s say: I have a 1980s Rubik’s Cube, and you have a paperback edition of Restaurant at the End of the Universe)
• But neither of us know if it’s a fair trade.
• So we hire an appraiser/umpire.
• One of us brings a cap, and puts it on the table.
• You, I, and the umpire each put $5 in the cap.
• The umpire examines both our stuff and determines that your book is worth $3 dollars more than my Rubik’s Cube.
• If we both agree that that’s a fair appraisal, I give you my cube, plus $3. You give me the book. And the umpire gets the $15 in the cap (He puts his “hand in the cap” to pull out the money).
• Ifyouthink that’s fair, but Idon’t, we each keep our stuff, and youget the $15 (and vice-versa)
• If neither of us thinks it’s fair, we each keep our stuff, and the umpire gets the $15 bucks.

So it looks like there’s a two out of three chance for the umpire (the handicapper, which is still a word, BTW), to get the money. But it would be very hard to deliberately set a price that would be unfair to bothplayers. So the best chances for the umpire to get paid is to try and be as impartial as possible. And it’s in the traders’ interest to err on the side of agreeing to the trade.

(Since learning the rules of this game, I’ve thought it might make an interesting variation on a charity raffle for school or other community fundraiser. It’s no more of a gamble than the more ordinary raffle, and people could get rid of stuff they no longer want)

Over time, “Hand-i’-Cap” came to mean the extra money paid to  make an unequal trade equal, and later, came to apply to extra weight in a horse’s saddle, or the extra strokes allowed certain players in golf, to make the odds of the game/race more equal.