Dirty words, clean words
Den Beste goves a fasinating account of how words became regarded as "dirty" because of their origon rather than their meaning.
"...In modern English when we talk about certain eternal and somewhat rude subjects, there are short words which we think of as being rather vulgar or base, and longer words for the same things which are generally thought of as being more cultured, more acceptable in polite company. It turns out that the short vulgar words almost all come to us from Anglo-Saxon words derived from old German, while the polite words derive from Latin via Norman. This doubled vocabulary happened during the first couple hundred years after the Norman conquest of England, during which period the nobles who ruled England still primarily spoke Norman (a Romance language related to French, from Normandy) while the commoners primarily spoke old English, which was a Germanic language based on the language the Saxons spoke when they had invaded England."
Den Beste goves a fasinating account of how words became regarded as "dirty" because of their origon rather than their meaning.
"...In modern English when we talk about certain eternal and somewhat rude subjects, there are short words which we think of as being rather vulgar or base, and longer words for the same things which are generally thought of as being more cultured, more acceptable in polite company. It turns out that the short vulgar words almost all come to us from Anglo-Saxon words derived from old German, while the polite words derive from Latin via Norman. This doubled vocabulary happened during the first couple hundred years after the Norman conquest of England, during which period the nobles who ruled England still primarily spoke Norman (a Romance language related to French, from Normandy) while the commoners primarily spoke old English, which was a Germanic language based on the language the Saxons spoke when they had invaded England."
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