dirty words in dictionaries revisted

[Wilson Gray]

On Dec 17, 2004, at 11:08 AM, Baker, John wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: dirty words in dict              ionaries revisted
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>         Might "P's" have been understood by an Elizabethan audience as
> simply "piss," and not "pees"?
>
> John Baker
>

In other words, such an audience wouldn't have gotten the pun?

-Wilson Gray

> -----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
>