Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
politically correct (adj.), P(.)C(.) (abbrev.), political correctness (n.)
Politically correct, or PC, is an epithet applied by those who disagree with attitudes expressed by a number of isms to programs their supporters insist represent the only desirable treatment of these issues. Especially in academic and liberal environments, politically correct terms tend to cluster around such issues as feminism, sexism, racism, and speciesism (all of which see), as well as around many other issues of the day about which all men and women of good will (as defined by the speaker) must feel as the speaker does. For usage, this vexed issue matters greatly because one of the key programs has been the effort to replace old terms with new ones, primarily euphemisms: for example, some reformers urge that the euphemisms disabled and disadvantaged, which have largely replaced crippled, be themselves replaced with differently abled or another such euphemism. And in the speed with which the first set of euphemisms lost its power to satisfy lies the clue to PC’s pitfalls: saying does not necessarily make it so, and whitening a sepulcher does little to alter what’s in it, even when everyone agrees to the paint job. In view of the absurd exaggerations of partisans on both sides of every one of these issues, lasting change in the vocabulary seems unlikely. Nevertheless, the impact of PC ideas, the weight of social pressures, and the truth of the linguistic force of the question of who will call the shots—Humpty Dumpty’s “Who shall be master?”—are impossible to predict and should not be underestimated. PC itself may be a short-lived vogue word, but the forces and counterforces it represents are not likely to disappear while the language is in use.
