Re: USAGE Re: [CONLANG] Bunty.

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...)
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.

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