Crippled

This is a medically outmoded and politically incorrect term today. However, in the not-so-distant past there were U.S. federal funds appropriated for "crippled children." (This writer served as a physician in the Crippled Children's Division, renamed the Child Development and Rehabilitation Center, at Oregon Health Sciences University). The term "crippled" implies causing a serious loss of normal function through damage or loss of an essential part or element. The word "cripple" is of Anglo-Saxon origin, from "creopan" meaning "to creep." Someone who was crippled, from an oxcart rolling over his leg, had to creep along. There is a tendency in medicine to prefer words of Greek and Latin ancestry to those of Anglo-Saxon descent.

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Denoting a person who, owing to a physical defect or injury, is partially or completely disabled. [A.S. creopan, to creep]