Bad words (specifically "piss")

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:37 PM -0400 7/8/02, Duane Campbell wrote:
>On Mon, 8 Jul 2002 19:21:52 EDT "James A. Landau"
>
>>   "Piss" is also from
>>  French---compare the
>  > name of the famous statue "Le Manequin-Pis".

manikin-pis, in the heart of Brussels, so not technically French, but...

Anyway, perhaps a clearer case is Fr. "pissenlit" for 'dandelion',
literally piss-in-bed, from its presumed effect on the consumer.  We
borrowed the 'lion's tooth' rather than the 'piss-in-bed' metaphor,
given the choice.

>
>Again, agreed. But "piss" is not really such a bad word. My
>mother-in-law, a fine Methodist woman, may she rest in peace, who would
>never allow a bad word or a bottle of alcohol in her house, felt no
>inhibition in calling someone who gained her disfavor a "pisspot".  And
>"pisshouse" was a common rural name for the outdoor convenience.
>
I suspect there's a distinction between the literal, simple verb on
the one hand and compound forms and/or those with metaphorical import
on the other--not just "pisspot" and "pissenlit" but "piss off",
"pissed" (meaning either 'drunk' in Britain or 'angry' in the U.S.,
leading to some great misunderstandings, as it happens), "pissant",
"piss-poor", and so on.  I can imagine all these being used, given
the occasion, by a speaker who would nevertheless shy away from using
"piss" tout court for the bodily function or fluid.  It's related, of
course, to the story about the soldier on leave who locked up his
fuckin rifle, said goodbye to his fuckin sergeant, left his fuckin
barracks, took a fuckin bus into town, went into a fuckin bar, had a
few fuckin drinks, picked up a fuckin girl, took her to a fuckin
hotel, and had sexual intercourse with her.  (I'm sure others on the
list could provide more eloquent tellings of the tale.)  The moral is
that you can't really use metaphorical extensions or compounds to
determine how "bad" (or powerful) a word is for a given speaker.

larry