challenged

the only "challenged" term that was ever seriously used (and not for long nor by everyone) was "physically challenged." That attempt to name one of the realities of disability innocently provoked the ridiculisms that were then charged to "political correctness." Even Fowler's Modern English Usage, 3rd ed., which ought to be able to distinguish between genuine and deliberately farcical word usages, credits "the political correctness movement of the 1980s and 1990s" with "notorious formations" like "cerebrally challenged" (stupid) and "vertically challenged" (short). If it needs to be spelled out, the rash of simulated "challenged" words came not from the so-called PC "movement" but from the anti-PC "intelligentsia." See also disabilities, physically challenged/different, political correctness, ridiculisms.