Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

[Joel S. Berson]

John,

Are you referring only to law cases?  "Bitch", noun, in the
perjorative sense dates from earlier than the 18th century (OED2).

I happen to be on this word because I am tracking down a use of
"bitch" (verb) = grumble, complain from around 1775 -- OED2 has it as
1930- (v.2, sense 3).

At 8/7/2007 01:20 PM, John Baker wrote:
>         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
>
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