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Re: USAGE Re: [CONLANG] Bunty.

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Sunday, June 22, 2008, 11:59
Yeah, "bint" is definitely non-native on this side of the Pond, firmly
in the category of "words used by Anglophiles when they want to sound
British". Other popular members of that category include "bloody" as a
swear word (all time winner), relative newcomer "chuffed", and some
words of intermediate vintage such as "mate" meaning "friend", "wank"
and derivatives, etc, etc.  Some such words do seem to be getting more
integrated into American usage; I'd put "twit" in that latter
category.



On 6/22/08, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
> ROGER MILLS wrote: >> And Rosta wrote (re bint) >>> 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. >>> >> I'g duess, then, that the word came via military slang, from all those >> years in India (Muslim/Urdu speaking areas?) abd/or the mid-east. >> > > Or just from Anglo-Indian jargon? > > I was familiar with the word as a school kid in the 1950s here in > Britain. It was part our schoolboy jargon (it was an all boys school) > and there was no awareness that the word was foreign - I learnt that later. > > It's not a word I'd normally use now - it seems rather dated to me - but > I'd not find it particularly odd if I heard it. As far as I remember, > we'd use the word for youngish (nubile) females, say in their teens or > twenties, maybe early thirties. Once a woman reached middle age she was > definitely, to us school boys, a biddy, not a bint ;) > > Expressions like 'Yorkshire bint' or a 'Texas bint' do not seem odd to > me, as long as they're used when _referring_ to individuals (i.e. in the > 3rd person). My own recollection is that to use 'bint' when addressing a > female would have been mildly derogatory. > ------------------------------------------------- > > Ph. D. wrote: > > Lars Finsen wrote: > >> > >> Den 20. jun. 2008 kl. 17.26 skrev Peter Collier: > >>> > >>> I just love 'Bintland' - it conjures up such a > >>> marvellous mental image of some kind of theme park of 'ill repute'. > >> > >> I see, so the connection is that obvious. > > Certainly a land populated with nubile maidens - the 'ill repute' bit > wouldn't figure very strongly, if at all, in my understanding. > > >> I thought 'bint' was rather > >> an obscure word. At least Matthew Reilly, my latest translation > >> victim, seems > >> to think you need to be somewhat familiar with Arabic to recognise it. > > No - just to have been brought up in the right part of the world and, > possibly, in certain generations (Is the word readily known among > teenagers in modern Britain? I don't know). > > > Well, I've never run across that word here in the United States. > > So it didn't get across the Pond, I guess. > > -- > Ray > ================================== > http://www.carolandray.plus.com > ================================== > Frustra fit per plura quod potest > fieri per pauciora. > [William of Ockham] >
-- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>