[Ads-l] wench

[Dave Hause]

Perhaps archaic, but "wench" was still in recognition (and close enough to 
use) vocabulary for my high school-educated mother (circa 1958) to make an 
instant response to my younger brother's description of a tool purchase by 
my father:  "Mommy, Daddy bwought home a big wench."  "He better not have."
Dave Hause
-----Original Message----- 
From: James A. Landau
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 1:09 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: wench

Something that appears to have overlooked in this thread:  in the 17th 
century both Africans and Native Americans were used as household servants. 
The blacks were usually slaves (slavery was practiced in all 13 Colonies 
until circa 1780).  I do not know if Native Americans could also be slaves 
(can anyone enlighten me?)

If in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Colonies the term "wench" generally 
meant "slave woman", it would still frequently be necessary to specify if a 
particular wench were African, Native American, or mixed-race.

Off-topic: "wench", long archaic, is enjoying a micro-revival in George R. 
R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series, set in a universe quite similar 
to our Middle Ages, in which "Wench" is Jaime Lannister's disparaging term 
of address to Brienne of Tarth.

- Jim Landau



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