I’m betting almost everyone reading this has an acquaintance or loved one who meets the traditional definition of lame. Her disabilities are not insurmountable problems, but they are certainly challenges, both physically and emotionally. Getting things out of her locker is a challenge and sometimes, when she needs to go from one floor to another, she must do so alone in the elevator, while the other kids take the stairs.
The girl in my daughter’s class who uses a wheel chair (and occasionally crutches) would also be considered "lame" by the old definition. Their physical world is bounded and confined by reduced mobility. They don’t go out much because it’s too painful to move very far. They walk slowly and “haltingly” with walkers. My elderly neighbors might be described as “lame,” according to the traditional definition (though it’s not a current medical term and isn’t-and shouldn’t be-commonly used to describe people with disabilities in this day and age). It’s the adjective lame, and we need to stop using it.Ĭan we take a minute to think about what the word lame really means? The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that lame means to be “disabled or impaired in any way weak, infirm paralyzed unable to move.” This dictionary tells us that the word lame also applies especially to being “disabled in the foot or leg, so as to walk haltingly or be unable to walk.” But that doesn’t cover the whole meaning, as anyone with a physical disability knows. I’ve heard it used by colleagues and middle-schoolers, characters in middle-level fiction and family members I’ve even heard it from the pulpit, being used by an otherwise progressive minister.
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