QST: "Dummy" is rooted in ableist language
- [x] I have searched the [[pandas] tag](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/pandas) on StackOverflow for similar questions.

- [x] I have asked my usage related question on [StackOverflow](https://stackoverflow.com).

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#### Question about pandas

Although extremely common in the industry, "dummy" has some unfortunate history. One current use is for substitutes - mannequins, stand-ins, etc. This use grew from its original definition, "mute person". Mute people are not substitutes or stand-ins and I would prefer Pandas to not contribute to this view. There are other words, like "indicator", for statistics.

[Pandas currently uses "get_dummies" as a function name, with the documentation referencing "indicator" as a synonym.](https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/reference/api/pandas.get_dummies.html)

Citations:

1. https://www.etymonline.com/word/dummy
2. https://www.etymonline.com/word/dumb
3. https://www.etymonline.com/word/indicator