From The Canting Crew to The Army of the Potomac Part I

In an email I asked one of the readers of this blog if she felt like she was being a harridan. Since she didn’t respond at all to the use of the obscure word it’s time to give some more attention to the proliferation of negative words describing women and compare/contrast it with negative words about men.

I’ve posted on three words describing men exclusively or primarily: avuncular, bon vivant, and cuckold. But of these words only cuckold has any negative sense. Avuncular and bon vivant are both positive words.  The words we’ve already covered that refer exclusively to women are not positive words: demimonde  and ecdysiast both would not be good words to use in polite society. And there are other not positive words that are as yet untouched upon. Although several of them were not originally as negative as they’ve come to mean.

Harridan is a word that refers to a woman who nags and scolds, and is just a vicious shrew. Etymonline.com has some definitions from literature (it usually doesn’t include as much as it did with harridan): in 1700 the Dictionary of the Canting Crew, a dictionary that captured a significant number of slang and non-standard words, defined harridan as “one that is half Whore, half Bawd.”  While etymonline.com will only state that it is found from the 16^th century on, it admits its origin is unknown.  The World English Dictionary suggests that it may be related to the French word haridelle, which is literally a broken-down horse. By 1755 Samuel Johnson defined a harridan in his dictionary as “a decayed strumpet.”

A slattern may be a nice woman, but is not a good housekeeper.  Whereas harridan usually is used of an older woman, slattern can be used of any age, even a girl. It is defined primarily as a slovenly, untidy woman. In the 1630s, when it came to English it referred to a rude, ill-bred woman.  It may have come from the Low German word Slattje, the Dutch word slodder, or the dialectical Swedish word slata, which means slut (not the slut you’re likely thinking). But its meaning has come to be more closely associated with slatter, an English verb that means to spill or splash or waste, and describes the kind of activity that an untidy or slovenly woman would pay little attention to when cleaning. It now has a secondary definition of slut.

Slut originally meant the same thing as slattern: a dirty, slovenly, or untidy woman. But that was back in the 1400s, before slattern came along. Dictionary.com still lists dirty and slovenly as a secondary definition, but indicates its use in that sense is obsolete. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it first appeared in written English in 1402, and also originally was used to describe a kitchen maid.  But by the end of the century it referred to an immoral or improper woman.  Etymonline.com refers to Chaucer’s use of the word sluttish in the late 1300s in reference to an untidy man.  But by the middle of the 1400s it also refers to a woman of loose morals.

Some other interesting uses of slut developed: in the 18^th century hard pieces of a bread loaf that developed because of imperfect kneading were called  slut’s pennies, doubtless a reference to lazy kitchen maids. In the 19^th century it was also used as a synonym for bitch, in referring to female dogs.

More words for bad women next week.