Re: Erudite Romans :)

Barry>>>>>>
edheil@postmark.net writes:
>
>The side effect is that naughty Romans merely sound erudite. :)
Boy, those romans could have the foulest mouths and sound clincal to my
ears :).

Anyway, I read somewhere that all of the polite terms for bodily functions
and parts either come from Middle French or Latin, and all the rude words
are of Anglo-Saxon origin. True? Yes? No?
<<<<<<

I think that those words were almost unversally non-rude (at least, used
indiscriminately regardless of context), the question is one of the source
language iteslf being deprecated.  The blame there can go with the Normans, the
Monks and the Classicists (and prescriptivists, "faux latinisers" and suchlike
from the 18th (17th?) centuries onwards).

There's also an aspect I've noticed of euphemisms for "base acts" entering the
language gradually being taken up with greater and greater frequency, until
they're used in all contexts where the previous term was used.  They then become
"common" (in both senses) and therefore are considered equally obscene.  New
euphemisms are coined, and the cycle continues.  Once again, this points to the
Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse (etc) terms being older, and therefore having gone down
this path the furthest.



JM .02



Paul




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