dirty words in dict ionaries revisted

[Baker, John]

        Might "P's" have been understood by an Elizabethan audience as simply "piss," and not "pees"?

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Jesse Sheidlower
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 12:02 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: dirty words in dict ionaries revisted


On Thu, Dec 16, 2004 at 04:53:20PM -0800, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Oddly,. Partridge missed this one in his frequently overdone "Shakespeare's Bawdy."

"By my life, this is my lady's hand these be her
very C's, her U's and her T's and thus makes she her
great P's."

Theoretically, "and" = "N". Sheidlower retails this story in
some book or other, too. And yes, this would be a huge antedating
of _pee_ 'urine; act of urinating', if real.

JTS
OED