Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

[Wilson Gray]

Well, there's German Masculine Schweinhund." And, in BE slang, "dog"
is no compliment, though not as fraught with insult as "bitch."

-Wilson

On 8/7/07, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     Just wondering: What is it about a female dog that has made the word =
> "bitch" so offensive?  I sense a great injustice here.  Dogs (both male =
> and female), albeit with some exceptions, are wonderful animals.
> =20
> Gerald Cohen
> =20
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Benjamin Zimmer
> Sent: Tue 8/7/2007 3:34 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> Subject: Re: Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution
>
> On 8/7/07, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> <snip>=20
>
> The squabble continues for most
> > of a page, with the term "She-Dog" occurring in profusion.
>
> Which fits with what the Grose entry has...
>
> BITCH. A she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appellation
>   that can be given to an English woman, even more
>   provoking than that of whore, as may he gathered from the
>   regular Billinsgate or St. Giles's answer--"I may be a
>   whore, but can't be a bitch."
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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