dirty words in dictionaries revisted

[Baker, John]

        However, if the theory that "pee" derives from the initial letter P in "piss" is correct, that's a plausible derivation for the 18th century but less likely for the 16th century.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 12:04 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: dirty words in dictionaries revisted


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