Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

[Baker, John]

        Yes, these are only legal cases, and I did not expect that my
1794 example represented an antedating.  These findings show that the
pejorative sense predominated in the U.S. no later than the end of the
18th century.

        Westlaw does not show any early uses of "bitch" as a verb
(searching for "bitched" or "bitching" - it's too hard to find the
present tense), but there are some examples of the adjective
"son-of-a-bitching."  Perhaps someone else can say why the adjective
would take that form.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Joel S. Berson
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 2:35 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

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).

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