 Since some Deaf people can also speak, the term "deaf-mute" is not accurate.The word "dumb" had meant "speechless" for centuries in English, before it gained the sense of "stupid" as a secondary meaning in the 19th century, but since "stupid" has now become the primary meaning, even though the term is still widely understood in the secondary meaning in the particular expression, the term is now unsuitable to refer to Deaf people.The history of Deaf Americans, for the most part, parallels that of American Sign Language (ASL).