The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #57695   Message #909035
Posted By: Bagpuss
13-Mar-03 - 09:46 AM
Thread Name: BS: Justice Discovered In the Universe !
Subject: RE: BS: Justice Discovered In the Universe !
From etymology on-line:

bastard - 1223, from O.Fr., "child of a nobleman by a woman other than his wife," probably from fils de bast "packsaddle son," meaning a child conceived on an improvised bed (saddles often doubled as beds while traveling), with pejorative ending -art. Alternate possibly is that the word is from P.Gmc. *banstiz "barn," suggestive of low origin. Not always regarded as a stigma; the Conqueror is refered to in state documents as "William the Bastard." Figurative sense is from 1552; bastardize is from 1587.

whore - O.E. hore "prostitute, harlot," from P.Gmc. *khoraz (fem. *khoron-) "one who desires," a common Gmc. word (cf. Dan. hore, Du. hoer, O.H.G. huora (Goth. has left only the masc. form hors "adulterer, fornicator"), from PIE *qar-, a base that has produced words in other languages for "lover" (cf. L. carus "dear," O.Ir. cara "friend," Skt. kamah "love, desire" -- the first element in kamasutra). The verb meaning "to have to do with whores" is from 1583. M.E. whoreson (often used affectionately) translates Anglo-Fr. fiz a putain.

dyke - 1931, Amer.Eng., probably shortening of morphadike, dialectal garbling of hermaphrodite, but bulldyker "engage in lesbian activities" is attested from 1921, and a source from 1896 lists dyke as slang for "the vulva."