Hi Mark, what's with "Bunnits," as opposed to
"Bunnies, " the form I grew up with?
Thanks--Candice
--- Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Neither contact nor cognate forms, but a common
> ancestry.
>
>
> At 01:00 AM 9/1/2007, you wrote:
> >>Yup, the pejorative came first, before even the
> >>gender applied to, but when I look at the
> >>Germanic cognates
>
>>(http://books.google.com/books?id=Lx8B2tyuy1MC&pg=PA444&lpg=PA444&dq=slut+etymology&source=web&ots=c_Y7kYOIv4&sig=dModOQmfb78SJs4rAOMa9GFMQgw)
>
> >>the sexual imputation appears in some languages
> >>but not in others. Meanings in the various
> >>languages: Icelandic, a heavy, loglike fellow;
> >>Swedish dialect, a slut, an idler; Norwegian,
> >>idler; Danish, slut; verb forms, Icel;andic and
> >>Norwegian to droop, allied to Danish loose,
> >>flabby. From slot-, stem of past participle of
> >>Norwegian sletta, to dangle, drift, idle about.
> >>Further allied to Dutch slodde, a slut, and the
> >>verb to slide.Cf. Irish slaodaire, a lazy person,
> from slaod, to slide.
> >
> >Um. Post-Skeat, we have Onions in the Oxford
> >Dictionary of English Etymology saying "contact
> >with Continental words similarly used and having
> >the same cons[onantal] framework SL..T, cannot
> >be proved" and the OED: " Forms having some
> >resemblance in sound and sense also occur in the
> >Scand. languages, as Da. slatte (? from LG.),
> >Norw. slott, Sw. dial. slåta, but connexion is very
> doubtful.]"
> >
> >-- which would suggest parallel or convergent
> >evolution rather than cognate forms, if that's
> >what you're suggesting above. Assuming the word
> >doesn't come into use much before it's first
> >recorded, the end of the 14thC is a bit late for
> >an unidentified borrowing from another
> >continental language. By then, when words are
> >borrowed [I think], they tend initially to look
> >very much like their form in the language they
> >are borrowed from. (Which contention would be a
> >bit stronger if I could think of an example.)
> >
> >I'm drawn towards the idea that "slut" comes in
> >because there's a strong phonaesthetic framework
> >around the general semantic area of glub and
> >grot, similar words just begging to be added
> >to. I haven't checked the date origins of the
> following, but consider:
> >
> > slut / slattern / sloven
> >
> > slug / (slow) / sloth
> >
> > sot
> >
> > slubber / slobber
> >
> >-- given that weight of phonaesthetic
> >negativity, sluts virtually have to be sluttish,
> nah?
> >
> >>I'm assuming that the various idle, slovenly
> >>meanings are earlier, and that by a process of
> >>convergence the sexual and the social accreted to
> the word.
> >
> >I'm inclined to agree, but the 50 year range in
> >the OED is a narrow one, within the margin of
> >error of when the word appears vs. when it's
> >first recorded in print. Also, I simply picked
> >up the definitions the OED gives without
> >checking them against the citations themselves
> >-- too much trouble at this time of night --
> >which is sloppy of me, given past
> >experience. But LEME did seem to concur --
> >Florio is more colourful (as ever) in his range
> >of synonyms for the word, but he's not untypical
> >of all the writers who "define" it between
> 1550-1700.
> >
> >>Seems to me too reasonable to be a
> >>frseh-hatched folk etymology of my own, but I'm
> >>aware that the best available is far short of
> proof.
> >
> >Yup.
> >
> >Back to the Spital House. I'm beginning to get
> >to *like that bloody poem, which is worrying.
> >
> >Ulp ...
> >
> >Robin
>
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