spaz

English

Alternative forms

• spazz

Etymology

From spastic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spæz/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æz

Noun

spaz (plural spazzes) (slang, derogatory, offensive)

1. A stupid or incompetent person.
   • 1981, Stephen King, The Jaunt:

     In fact, it was the view of the scientists now in charge […] that the freakier they were, the better; if a mental spaz could go through and come out all right […] then the process was probably safe for the executives, politicians, and fashion models of the world.

   • 2006, Tiger Woods, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     “I was so in control from tee to green, the best I’ve played for years… But as soon as I got on the green I was a spaz.”

2. A hyperactive person.
3. A tantrum, a fit.
4. A person with spastic paralysis, spastic cerebral palsy or epilepsy

Usage notes

The offensiveness of this term and of spastic differs somewhat between the US and the UK. In the UK, it is highly offensive. The term is more commonly used in the U.S., but is still offensive to some in the disability community. See spastic for more.

Derived terms

• spaz attack

 

Related terms

• spack
• spastic

Translations

stupid person

• Dutch: spast (nl) m
• Finnish: typerys (fi), tollo (fi), tyhmä (fi)
• German: Spasti (de) m
• Indonesian: bakero (id)
• Japanese: 馬鹿 (ja) (baka), 阿呆 (ja) (ahou), 馬鹿野郎 (ja) (bakayarou)
• Russian: приду́рок (ru) m (pridúrok), деби́л (ru) m (debíl)

hyperactive person

incompetent person

• Dutch: spast (nl) m

tantrum, fit

• Dutch: spasme (nl) n

See also

• retard
• tard

Verb

spaz (third-person singular simple present spazzes, present participle spazzing, simple past and past participle spazzed)

1. (slang, derogatory, offensive) To have a tantrum or fit.
2. (slang) To malfunction, go on the fritz.

Usage notes

The sense “to malfunction” is the only sense that is not insulting to the object, and is cognate to spasm (compare seize up), but still may cause offense due to connections with spastic.

Synonyms

• (have a tantrum): freak out

Derived terms

• spaz out

Translations

have a tantrum

• German: ausrasten (de), ausflippen (de), einen Anfall kriegen

malfunction

Anagrams

• zaps