Etymological Scholarship on C-Word

[Jonathon Green]

Michael Adams wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael Adams <madams1448 at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Etymological Scholarship on C-Word
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>  Thanks for pointing to Burford's books, Jonathon -- MED did not have any evidence of such a street in York, and if Burford has, it's quite important. Of course, the MED's C fascicles were published in the 1950s or early 60's, so material may well have surfaced since then.
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Michael,

I don't want to mislead you: Burford is (I would now imagine _was_) a
scholar of London and his Gropecuntlane material is based on his
researches in Clerkenwell (the 'suburb' immediately adjacent to the then
City wall and where brothels were permitted (he also deals with
Southwark, south of the Thames, a similarly permissive zone.)  The
York/Oxon info was passed to me recently by an interviewer from the BBC
who, believe it or not, are putting together a TV program on _cunt_ and
requested my opinions thereupon. A fellow interviewee had told them of
the two streets outside London of which I had hitherto been quite
unaware. I would be more than happy to check out _their_ resources after
the weekend.

JG

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