deaf-mute

Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have some degree of speaking ability, but choose not to speak because of the negative or unwanted attention atypical voices sometimes attract. Such people communicate using sign language. Some consider it to be a derogatory term if used outside its historical context; the preferred term today is simply deaf.

==Historical usage of deaf-mute and other terms== ===United Kingdom=== In 19th-century British English mute and dumb meant 'non-speaking', and were not pejorative terms. For example, in 1889 Queen Victoria instigated the Royal Commission on The Blind, the Deaf and Dumb etc. in the United Kingdom. The intention was to examine contemporary education and employment of blind or deaf people, with a view to improving conditions for them. By the 1840s, it was estimated that one person in 1,622 of the population in the United Kingdom was classed as a deaf-mute. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the North American pejorative usage of the word "dumb" to imply stupidity was first noted in the UK in 1928. According to the OED, deaf-mute was coined in the early 19th century as a medical term for an inability to speak as a consequence of deafness. There is no mention of offensiveness of this term in the UK.