this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
949 points (98.7% liked)

Science Memes

20931 readers
719 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Arcadeep@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

It is still used to refer to things like fire retardant. To retard (pronounced ruh-tard and not ree-tard) means to slow or restrict the progress of something such as spoilage or fire spreading and is still a word with ligitimate uses, with the outdated 'medical' usage being a reference to a mentally disabled person's slower mental progress.