Historically fool was also used for people with metal disabilities. Same as idiot, dolt, simpleton, dumb, and virtually every other word we have for “crazy” and “stupid”
Besides which, crazy people aren’t necessarily stupid people, so fool wouldn’t work for that.
Ableist use of the world fool is so rare I’ve never heard of it before today. The usage referring to the job fool is much more common, and thus the word is much less offensive than ps*cho. If we’re trying to avoid harm, we should choose the least offensive word, right? Or just not use that kind of word at all.
Historically fool was also used for people with metal disabilities. Same as idiot, dolt, simpleton, dumb, and virtually every other word we have for “crazy” and “stupid”
Besides which, crazy people aren’t necessarily stupid people, so fool wouldn’t work for that.
Ableist use of the world fool is so rare I’ve never heard of it before today. The usage referring to the job fool is much more common, and thus the word is much less offensive than ps*cho. If we’re trying to avoid harm, we should choose the least offensive word, right? Or just not use that kind of word at all.
Where do you think the job title came from?