Have a gay old time

The words "idiot", "moron", and "imbecile" started as clinical terms, referring to people with IQs below 25, 75, and 50, respectively. The infamous 'nigger' which is so virulent it cannot be even used clinically in many places anymore used to be common language, even without racist overtones.

Usually relates to sexual euphemisms, but can also involve other sensitive concepts. Nowadays, she'd be young, or a girl, but not both. As of the mids, the treadmill turned again, and "disabled" is again the preferred term. For example, "nigger babies" used to be a name for a popular candy, while Agatha Christie even used the title Ten Little Niggers for her arguably most famous work; even back then nigger was considered risky so it was retitled Ten Little Indians for US publication, which annoyed another group of people, so they eventually settled on And Then There Were None.

The uproar was largely unexpected, considering how long any Flintstones treatment of the issue would have already been on record. A cross between Accidental Innuendo and Unusual Euphemism, as a result of Language Drift —. After decades of that being used as an insult, "retarded" is now considered so offensive that some people want it classified as hate speech.

Time, good friends. Words changed meaning less frequently before the advent of radio and television, and when they did change, the transformation could be slow as seen with 'gay' above. Racist terminology is also a prime example of this.

“For over a half century now, The Flintstones theme song has cavalierly touted that when you’re with them you will have a ‘gay old time,'” CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said on the air Tuesday. Sometimes the expression still has an innocent meaning that is at least as valid as the naughty one, note For instance, "young girl" generally won't raise eyebrows if the speaker is older and isn't sexualizing her, but now there are just too many people with their minds in the gutter.

Compare with Hilarious in Hindsightof which this is arguably a Sub-Trope. They used to read that to us from the Bible in third grade; and we would laugh A cross between Accidental Innuendo and Unusual Euphemismas a result of Language Drift — natural changes in the common vocabulary — causes a word or phrase originally intended as wholly innocuous to be potentially taken as startling, confusing, or just plain funny in a different time or place.

This means that, for longer than you might thinkwriters have been employing that word deliberately in order to get crap past the radar.

Have a Gay Old : gay old time: What Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were having when Wilma and Betty were out

Keep in mind that some of these words actually did have their modern meaning at the time they were used, but only within certain sections of the populace. Even very slight changes in usage can produce this effect; until recently, for example, a man might speak of his attraction to a "young girl", and everyone would understand he meant a woman in her 20s.

The Have a Gay Old Time trope as used in popular culture. Television sped things up: it took only a few weeks in the '70s for the meaning of "boob" to change from "dummy" to "breast" among the general public. Some of these examples result from the euphemism treadmillwhereby terms are repeatedly replaced as the previous word falls into such a state of misuse that it cannot be recovered.

As these terms fell into common use as insults, they were replaced by a kinder and gentler term: "mentally retarded". How was this an accidentyou ask? The meaning of the word 'gay', for instance, began to change as early as among the criminal classes of New York, where it originally meant "prostitute" yes, before The Gay '90s ; around the meaning changed to "homosexual prostitute" and within five years of that to simply "homosexual".

Have a yabba-dabba-doo time A dabba-doo time We'll have a gay old time Flintstones, meet the Flintstones They're the modern Stone Age Family From the town of Bedrock They're a page right out of.

The term used to describe people with life-changing diseases or injuries followed a similar path, from "crippled" to "handicapped" to "disabled" to "physically challenged"; when terms like "handi-capable" and "differently abled" were proposed, it came across as too clunky and people generally agreed to stop messing with it.

Nowadays, even shows specifically about historic racism will avoid the word due to its baggage and triggering nature. See also Double Entendre or Intentionally Awkward Title for when this trope is invoked entirely intentionally, Separated by a Common Language for the spatial analogue, and Get Thee to a Nunnery for the reverse process.

It took over a hundred years for the primary meaning of the verb 'want' to change from "lack" to "desire".