[Lexicog] stereotypes, taboos, and lexicography

[David Tuggy]

You're right, not originally. At a critical stage of things, in Gaul
apparently, when serfs attached to old Roman villas were called
villains, and their conquerors were the Franks. I spoke sloppily--sorry.
If I remember the story right, by 1066 the "ethical" meanings of the
words was already there in Norman French, which was indeed where English
got the terms.

--David Tuggy

Peter Kirk wrote:

> On 23/02/2005 19:17, David Tuggy wrote:
>
> >... The
> >chapter on "villain" and "frank", which were originally social antonyms,
> >is a particularly good one. "Christian", "gentleman", and other
> >high-status words (including "frank"), were one the same
> >historico-semantic treadmill.
> >
> >
> >
> Not quite "originally". "Frank" surely started off as an ethnic
> designation, referring to the Norman French or Franks who imposed
> themselves as an aristocracy on us English in 1066. But presumably the
> link with "French" was lost before the era of expressions like "French
> leave", allowing this self-designation of the aristocracy to retain a
> positive meaning.
>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter at qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
>
>
>
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