Not only has a medical term, it was used in regards to spoilation of food, for instance they might say that they added a toxic preservative to excuse the phrase, Retard the spoilation of the food. Turns out the toxic preservatives are very bad. Who knew? Besides for all of us.
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the progress of something such as spoilage or fire spreading and is still a word with ligitimate uses, with the outdated ‘medical’ usage being a reference to a mentally disabled person’s slower mental progress.
Not only has a medical term, it was used in regards to spoilation of food, for instance they might say that they added a toxic preservative to excuse the phrase, Retard the spoilation of the food. Turns out the toxic preservatives are very bad. Who knew? Besides for all of us.
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the progress of something such as spoilage or fire spreading and is still a word with ligitimate uses, with the outdated ‘medical’ usage being a reference to a mentally disabled person’s slower mental progress.