Of the expressions available to the English Language, "Dumb as a Haddock," just like the word "Retard," is a fine example of how meanings drift over time. Here the better lesson is to accept that semantic drift, meaning changing over time, cannot and should not be prevented.
"Dumb" as in deaf, dumb and blind, at one time reflected the idea of "Mute," unable to speak. This way the expression "dumb as a fish" meant as mute as a fish.
A Haddock is a North Atlantic ocean fish in the Cod family. In parts of the British Islands, Dublin and South Wales for example, the word "cod," as in "he's a cod" or "it's a cod," means an unreliable, dastardly sort of person or deed, not to be trusted. A Haddock on the other hand can sometimes mean a purse, as in "I'll bet you a monkey to a Haddock!" A monkey being around five hundred guineas and a purse being not much more than a couple of shillings.
So here we are rushing to protect the skulduggery and underhanded maneuvering of those in the Sensitive Professions who moved to replace the splendidly expressive symbols of Moron, Idiot and Imbecile with a variation of the Latin retardare so as to poshify an employment opportunity when all along emanating from the State of Maine here in the United States is the wonderful muddle of the H word, as in "I heard the current Secretary of Defense is Dumb as a Haddock."
Henceforth I will be joyously referring to the "R" word as the "H" word.
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