Bulgarian Phrases

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:38 PM -0400 10/10/00, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>I would far prefer to be called a whore than a slut, Larry

Well, that's what makes horse races, Ron.  But wouldn't you grant
that the difference isn't just that a slut is a whore only more so,
i.e. that the difference isn't measurable by a one-dimensional scalar
metric on which sluts are "worse than" whores?  Presumably one can be
a member of either category without being a member of the other (or,
of course, one can be neither, or both).  Speaking for myself, I
don't have much experience tossing either epithet around or having it
tossed at me, but I've noticed "Why, you slut!" (or
"I'm/You're/She's/He's such a slut!") used jocularly on TV sitcoms
and R rated comedies, while "whore" is used as a professional
characterization on TV detective shows and as a political metaphor.
(Probably not nearly as often in the latter sense as applicable.)

L