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Re: vulgarisms

From:Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
Date:Thursday, November 12, 1998, 4:34
On Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:27:08 -0500, Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:

>John Cowan wrote: >> The general pattern in English is that *domestic* animals are >> insulting: "dog", "cow", "bitch", "horse"; but not "wolf", "lion", >> "tiger"; still less "rhinoceros", "stegosaurus". > >What about "sloth"? That's not a domestic animal.
But "sloth" the animal has to have been a recent discovery (to English speakers, that is), and I'm sure the "laziness" meaning must have = preceded the "slow-moving mammal that hangs upside down from trees" meaning. Of course, some names of wild animals are insulting ("weasel", "snake", = "rat") but there are also a few wild animals with positive connotations ("fox"). =46or some reason, the name "Yellow-bellied Sapsucker" has always sounded like an insult to me.