dirty words in dictionaries

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 05:00:53PM -0400, Fred Shapiro wrote:
> 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._

Oh, I didn't say I didn't believe it. Just that I find it astonishing.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED