The "two Beastly Monosyllables"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Mar 14 17:19:07 UTC 2013


At 3/14/2013 03:20 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>FWIW, in Farmer & Henley the 850 synonyms for "cunt" are listed at
>the entry MONOSYLLABLE. The 1340 synonyms for "fuck" are entered
>under GREENS.  So "cunt" was even more of a monosyllable than
>"fuck", at least by the late 19th c.

Fascinating.  But what are GREENS?  (And where in the OED
definitions?)  And why are GREENS less of a monosyllable?

Joel

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