Talk:ride the short bus

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Latest comment: 7 years ago by DCDuring
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Pejorative sense 2 "have a need for a special education program" seems like a very roundabout definition. It really just means the person is being stupid or foolish, right? Equinox 21:25, 27 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

I agree; but it's more problematic than that. It imputes in the speaker a deliberation greater than simply questioning the target's intelligence. Lexicography has to be more responsible than that; and just because it's Wiktionary doesn't mean it's OK to get away with less than professional standards. For people whose first language is not English, the definition left standing is going to be confusing and misleading.JohndanR (talk) 21:46, 2 January 2017 (UTC)Reply
I authored the definitions and would welcome a better second definition.
In my experience the extended use is not about deficiency in intelligence, but in social skills or in some unspecified way that the object of the term is "not quite right".
One way we could improve the definition is to find some citations that use the term in ways outside the scope of the first definition. DCDuring TALK 22:40, 2 January 2017 (UTC)Reply