Re: USAGE Re: [CONLANG] Bunty.

Michael Poxon, On 22/06/2008 17:22:
> And's usage is parallel to mine. I've often called my lady friend a
> "****ing clever bint" or suchlike - but I would never, ever, call a
> woman that I did not know a "bint". To me, it's very insulting used that
> way. Possibly because it's monosyllabic, ends with -nt, and is female it
> suffers by association with a word too undignified for this noble list.
> I think it's Arabic, maybe came from WW2 soldiers in North Africa?
> Surely though "bint" isn't similar to "wench". There's no disrespect
> involved with wench as there is with bint (quite the opposite in my view
> - associations of buxom fun lasses, barmaids, etc...)
I meant that in some parts of the country, _wench_:_lady_::_fiddle_:_violin_,
i.e. they differ in register rather than meaning; likewise, _mog_:_cat_,
_bug_:_insect_ and so forth. And I'd been thinking that _bint_ too differed in
register rather than meaning, until I noticed the semantic element 'foreign'.

--And.

> Mike
>
>> Mildly disrespectful rather than very insulting, I'd say. Comparable
>> to _fiddle_ versus _violin_. It's a synonym of _woman_, and similar to
>> _wench_ (in being a synonym of _woman_ with different sociolinguistic
>> value), and unlike innumerably many other derogatory words for women
>> that add some further element of meaning (sexual laxity, garrulity,
>> irascibility, etc.). Actually though, I might be wrong, for upon
>> further introspection I conclude that it means 'foreign (nonanglo)
>> woman'; I would never talk about a 'Yorkshire bint' or a 'Texas bint',
>> but I would call my missus an 'Eyetie bint'. However, neither Dennis
>> the repressed serf nor the OED agree with me on this.
>>
>> --And.
>