dirty words in dictionaries revisted

[Jonathan Lighter]

Literature has preserved at least one 18th C "pee" from Britain. If it was chiefly a child's term, it could easily have gone unrecorded/unfound for 150 years.  The matter may not be resolvable.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: dirty words in dictionaries revisted
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Of course. Now I see what you mean. In fact, FWIW, even as recently as
the time of my own childhood, the form used was "(to) peepee" and not
simply "(to) pee."

-Wilson Gray

On Dec 17, 2004, at 11:27 AM, Baker, John wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Baker, John"
> Subject: Re: dirty words in dictionaries revisted
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> No, I mean that they would have gotten the pun, even though
> "pee" did not yet mean urinate.
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 11:23 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: dirty words in dictionaries revisted
>
>
> On Dec 17, 2004, at 11:08 AM, Baker, John wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: "Baker, John"
>> 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
>


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