Rise of the term autist

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I've seen more and more people use it lately. It's not that I am against people using it, it's just I am not really sure why they find it necessary. Are they trying to get away from the word autism like it has some negative connotation, like it refers to other illnesses and don't want to see autism as a bad thing like those illnesses?

I'm the oddest autist artist.

It doesnt "distance" anyone from autism because the word derives from autism. It's an idiotic term, but not for that reason.

"Autism" is a condition. A person with autism is a person. So you need separate, but related words, for the two things.

The correct term for a "person with autism" is "an autistic".

The problem with the term "autist" is that it sounds like you're talking about someone who "does" autism only on command, as a paid professional (like an 'illusionist' does magic tricks, or an "artist" does art, or "scientist" does science). Folks dont study and do an apprenticeship in the craft of autism to become austic! Autism is a medically diagnosed condition that they are born with, and cant help having.

So if you are a person on the autism spectrum then you are an "autistic", and not an "autist".

Though if you make a career out of gaming the system to get...say....SSI checks, when you're really NT, but pretend to be autistic, then ...maybe...you could be called an "autist". A succssfully fake autistic might be called an 'autist'.

It's just a polite way of saying someone with autism, minor and no big deal.

I just see "autist" to be more concise.

Perhaps compare to:
- Artist vs. someone who is artistic
- Bassoonist vs. someone who plays the bassoon
- Realist vs. someone who favors realism
(That should give the nit-pickers a lot to work with...uh, the people that like to pick nits.)

"Autist" seems to me to be a reasonable, concise, understandable, innocuous colloquial term that is broader than "Aspie". I am comfy with both words but I do not object to the longer, more official versions others prefer. I do think "autist" and "Aspie" are casual terms.

As often happens, some folk will prefer different terms and different phrasing. Different folk can use different words. It is how language evolves.

Some language evolution, however, makes me cringe. I was taught that "fewer" and "less" were different and applied in different situations. Apparently "less" now applies even when you are talking about there being fewer of some countable item.

Pessimist?

Which debate are you weighing in on?

Autist vs person with autism?

Or autist vs autistic?

A person with a tendency toward optimism is "optimistic". But you call them an "optimist". Same with pessimism.

So based upon that you could call an autistic person an "autist" I suppose. Even though both pessimism and optimism are to some extent conscious choices and are not inborn medical conditions. Thats if you're talking about the autist vs autistic question.

But you would never call a person a "person with pessimism", or "a person with optimism". It would be too unwieldy and sound strange.

I like the term autist.
It's more concise than "autistic person" and more acceptable than "sufferer of autism".

Plus grammatically it seems like "autistic" should be an adjective, whereas "autist" would fit as the equivalent noun.
Hence, if my behaviour and way of thinking are autistic, I am an autist.

To me "autist" has a weird "this is used only on the Internet" feel to it, almost like it would never come up in fleshspace so it isn't really anything worth paying attention to. It seems a bit awkward to me, but I think I'm partially just feeling vicarious embarrassment over all the online autism advocacy (because I know that most people probably don't take seriously). I'm assuming online autism advocacy is where the word is used the most.