dirty words in dictionaries

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2004, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> I find this astonishing, absolutely astonishing.

I have in front of me Joseph E. Wessely, Handy Dictionary of the Latin and
English Languages.  It has no date, but the Yale catalog assigns it the
dating "188-."  On page 29 appears the following:

cunnus, i, _m. cunt, strumpet._

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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