Just the other day I was having a discussion with a friend
who lived out of the country for a while. She mentioned to me that after
returning to the United States, cuss words had zero meaning to her. She had lived in Brazil where the words our
culture considers “bad” had no meaning there.
This made me think how much cultural significance we place on those
“bad” words. In fact, I wonder if the
more society uses those naughty words if those words would become invisible in
society as a whole. Profanity in our
culture is so widely accepted that no one typically bats an eye when a profane word
is used. Not to mention, we place far too much importance on such words!
Take the word bitch as an example, if you google it
you get two definitions. The first being a noun meaning a female dog, fox, wolf
or otter. The second being a verb meaning the expression of displeasure or
grumble. If we head over to Wikipedia we
see it defined as more of an insult.
With that being said, how many of us have a negative connotation of the
word? My bet is the majority of society
relates the word to the second definition or the Wikipedia definition not the
first given. But where did word
originate? How did we get to this meaning people so frequently associate so
much negativity too?
A Little History
After
doing a little leg work, this is what I have found; the Oxford Dictionary states that the origin of the word is
Old English “bicce” which is said that itself is a derivative of the word “bikkja”
(Old Norse). Either way, they all mean
the same thing: a female dog! According
to The Encyclopedia of Swearing: The
Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the
English Speaking World by Geoffrey Hughes, the earliest use of the word in
a derogatory sense meaning a promiscuous or sensual woman, this was a metaphor
of the behavior of a bitch in heat (female dog) and dates back to about 1330! (Who
would have thought?) During the eighteenth century the term became more potent
and dominating. In the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
(1785) it is written that “the most offensive appellation that can be given to
an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore, as may be gathered
from the regular Billingsgate or St. Gile’s answer – ‘ I may be a whore, but
can’t be a bitch.’” Fast forward to
modern times and the term is still considered a vulgarity in both the United
States and England, but in the world we live in many slang terms have other
meanings; like “man that ski run was bitchin” which is interpreted as “the ski
run was excellent”. The term is still
used to describe the behavior of a female dog after she has had puppies. A barking, nipping, aggressive, do anything
to protect her babies. With that being said, if you get snippy or defensive and
someone calls you a bitch, is it really a bad thing? I say no!
Why, because someone is recognizing that you have the ability to stand
up for yourself and defend what you hold dear!
I have searched the web for hours and everything I find points to the
modern belief that the term” bitch” is a term of empowerment. A lot of women yield to the meaning referring
to a protective mother dog. I know that is what I think of when I have hear the
word used.
A Teaching Moment
Many years ago, when my oldest boys
were 3 and 5 they were outside playing when the oldest fell. My three year old without missing a beat
exclaimed “son of a bitch that’s an Ouchy.”
Being the ever responsible parent, I had to stifle my laugh as I told
them I didn’t want to hear them use that word. Later, my husband and I decided it would be
best to explain to the boys the meaning of the word bitch. We discussed the noun version; a female dog,
thus a son of a bitch would be a boy dog.
Always witty, one of them asked, “Like grandma and grandpa’s dog
Ozzie?” They hit the nail right on the
head! At our very next trip to grandma
and grandpa’s the three year old decided to share his new found knowledge with
his grandpa and he very proudly declared “HEY GRANDPA, DID YOU KNOW OZZIE IS A
SON OF A BITCH?” Thank goodness for
grandpas with a sense of humor because he quickly said while laughing “well
aren’t you smart, you are right!” Grandma on the other hand did not find the
three year olds new knowledge so enlightening.
When properly as a noun it isn’t
bad at all! When we look back to Old
Norse (think Vikings: 793-1066 AD) the word” bikkja” it referred to a female
dog, nothing vulgar or obscene at all! Even
when used in the fashion to describe a protective mother dog in our modern
world it is considered a term that connotes power! So let us educate the world
one mouth at a time!
I just want to thank my son “J” for picking out this awesome picture
that he found at http://www.dogcentral.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/aggresive-dog-2.jpg
.jpg)
