Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

[Wilson Gray]

Does anyone else recall when "bitch and moan" was "piss and moan"? Or
was the latter merely a local St. Louis usage?

-Wilson

On 8/7/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 8/7/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > 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).
>
> Are your 18C attestations clearly in the 'grumble' sense, or could
> they possibly mean 'call someone a bitch', as in the 1709 OED cite,
> "In wonderful Rage went to Cursing and Bitching"?
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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