Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

[Baker, John]

        This, and Jon's earlier question about when "bitch" became
subject to taboo avoidance, made me wonder when pejorative uses of the
word started to occur in reported U.S. cases.  Pretty much from the
beginning, it would appear.

        The earliest case I saw was from 1796, reporting events of 1794:
"The following words charged, to wit; on September 22, 1794, "Go and
play the whore again." November 20, 1794, "Do not mind her, she is
drunk, the drunken bitch.""  The alleged drunken bitch/whore and her
husband sued for slander; the court found for the plaintiff and awarded
damages of six cents.  Phillips v. French, 2 Del. Cas.. 52 (Del. Ct.
Com. Pl. 1796).

        "Bitch" is used in U.S. law reports on Westlaw 24 times before
1850.  Of these, 12 are for "son of a bitch" (including variations),
nine are pejorative terms for women, two refer to female dogs, and one
is a typo for "birch."  Several cases suggest that "bitch" is considered
synonymous with "whore."

        Oddly enough, I just reran my search and now "bitch" is only
reported 8 times before 1850.  However, I did look at the 24 cases, so
they were there.  I don't know what is going on with Westlaw.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 11:51 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

On 7/31/07, Bapopik at aol.com <Bapopik at aol.com> wrote:

> "Tis Pity. This is being considered by the "Committee on Civil
> Rights"--a committee with obviously a lot of time on its hands.
> ...
> _http://www.nyccouncil.info/issues/current_resos.cfm?ID=Res%200960-200
> 7&HISTORY=YES_
>
[snip]
> Whereas, The  Council recognizes that the word "bitch," primarily
> defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as  "female canine animal,
especially a dog,"
> carries a legitimately non-pejorative  definition, but the Council
> further recognizes that in 1811, Francis Grose, in  his "Dictionary of

> the Vulgar Tongue," described "bitch" as "A she dog, or  doggess; the
> most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman,
> even more provoking than that of whore," thus documenting a
> long-standing  tradition of the word's use for purposes of
> degradation;
[snip]

It's nice to see Captain Grose getting hauled out to settle disputes on
21st-century pejorative usage in NYC, even if they're relying on the
posthumous revision of his 1785 dictionary. I suspect the resolution
writers consulted the Wikipedia entry for "bitch" to supply the Grose
entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org