s---k pot, 1805 (?)

[Jim Parish]

Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> Alan Hartley pointed out to me the following:
>
> >>might "s---k" have been "stink-pot"?
> >
> >I think so. At the verb "stink", the OED says "Now implying violent
> >disgust on the part of the speaker; in ordinary polite use avoided
> >as unpleasantly forcible." One of my grandmothers refused to use the word.
>
> I assume his grandmother was not as far back as 1805, but perhaps the
> editor of the newspaper had the same delicacy.  (Now if his
> grandmother had served aboard a British or American naval vessel, it
> would be a different story.)

On a possibly related note, I recall once seeing a naval comedy - don't remember the
title - in which, at one point, one of the sailors was supposedly cursing at another; the
word was bleeped out, but it was easy to see that he was saying "stink". (Not, I
suppose, that the film-maker considered the word bleepworthy, but the sailor had to say
*something*....)

Jim Parish

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