strong like ball

[Baker, John]

        Yes, "guts" used to be considered coarse.  Here's an illustrative quotation from Richard Grant White, A Desultory Denunciation of English Dictionaries, in The Galaxy (1869), via Cornell University Making of America:

        <<Vulgarity is no more a justification of the omission of any English word than obsoleteness.  Dictionaries are mere books of reference, made to be consulted, not to be read.  In the bear-baiting days of Queen Elizabeth it might be said without offence of a vile, dull man, that he was "not fit to carry guts to a bear."  Now-a-days a man who used, in general society, the simple English word for which some New England "females" elegantly substitute _innards_, would be looked upon with horror.  But this is no good reason for the omission of the word from a dictionary.>>

        Here's an 11/22/1928 use of "intestinal fortitude" from the online Harvard Crimson (Merriam-Webster has c. 1937), which also illustrates the point:

        <<Spirit, in the language of the barracks and of the dormitories and the language of these is quite similar), is nothing but a four-letter word meaning intestinal fortitude, an ugly little word known as "guts.">>


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Gordon, Matthew J.
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 7:38 PM
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Subject: strong like ball


I heard a new-to-me phrase on the radio: "testicular fortitude" which I took to be a form of "intestinal fortitude" gone south. The context was a local sports program discussing a particular coach. As expected, Google show 11k hits for it (cf. 63k for "intestinal fortitude").

While I'm at it, I'd always thought of "intestinal fortitude" as a humorously formal alternative to "guts." Does the evidence suggest it arose as a deliberately funny coinage? I see OED has a 1945 citation from Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy.

Also, was "guts" seen as vulgar or coarse at some time? Today it seems mostly just informal.

-Matt Gordon