Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>     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.

I think it's originally offensive because it means "low" and not
because it means "evil". To be likened to a dog or a bitch is
basically to be disrespected ... I think.

Cf. "work like a dog" (although dogs don't work hard usually), "they
treat me like a dog" (doesn't mean they pet me and take me to the
vet), "died like dogs", etc. The idea is that the dog is low-class or
ignoble (compared to the humans) ... I think.

-- Doug Wilson


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.8/940 - Release Date: 8/6/2007 4:53 PM

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