Re: vulgarisms

Carlos Thompson scripsit:

> The other phenomena I've found is how values changes.  Vulgar words changes.
> The history i heard says that the Spanish word "puta" (peyorative for hore)
> comes form a Italian word meaning "miss".  Which wasn't vulgar becomes that. The
> Spanish verb "coger": "to take" or "to grep" has become vulgar in many
> Latinoamerican countries with a peyorative meaning of having sex.  "Coger" is
> still used in Colombia with the standard meaning "to take".
This is very typical.  The English cognate of "cara" ("dear one (f.)"
in Romance lgs.) is "whore" (German "Hure") = "puta"!

> "cretino" which is not considered a vulgarity but is quite
> offensive.
Most ironically, it comes from French "cretin" < "chretien" = "Christian"!
Why, I do not know.  English also has "cretin".

The general pattern in English is that *domestic* animals are
insulting: "dog", "cow", "bitch", "horse"; but not "wolf", "lion",
"tiger"; still less "rhinoceros", "stegosaurus".

--
John Cowan                                      cowan@ccil.org
                e'osai ko sarji la lojban.