--- Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> >I think the class identification has to be prior,
> and the pejorative senses
> >attached to it. So, the scullery is filthy, as
> there weren't many resources
> >for her to be otherwise and her work was filthy;
> sexually loose because her
> >virtue had little social or economic value and loss
> of same wasn't as
> >likely to invalidate her for marriage as it would
> have a girl in the
> >doweried classes.
> 
> I'd be inclined to agree, Mark, but the *recorded
> early references (from
> just after 1400) are heavily loaded to the negative,
> and even from the
> beginning, the particular sense of slut as scullery
> or kitchen maid is quite
> rare in comparison to other (simply pejorative)
> uses.
> 
> ********************
> 
>   The OED gives:
> 
>   1. a. A woman of dirty, slovenly, or untidy habits
> or appearance; a foul
> slattern.
>    1402 Hoccleve Letter of Cupid 237 The foulest
> slutte of al a tovne.
> 
>    b. A kitchen-maid; a drudge. rare.
>    c1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 133 The quene her
> toke to make a slutte, And
> to vile services her putt.
> 
>    ?c. A troublesome or awkward creature. Obs.-1
>    c1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. (1868)
> 158 Crabbe is a slutt
> to kerve & a wrawd wight.
> 
>    2. a. A woman of a low or loose character; a bold
> or impudent girl; a
> hussy, jade.
>  c1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 218 Com forth, thou
> sloveyn! com forthe,
> thou slutte!
> 
> ******************************
> 
> So all the meanings come in about the same time over
> a fifty year period,
> with the neutral "kitchen maid" by far the least
> common.  This seems to be
> confirmed by the references in LEME (Lexicons of
> Early Modern English).
> 
> Would that it were otherwise, and I'd agree that the
> class element lies
> behind it. Nevertheless, the word *itself was
> negative from the start,
> rather than the negative associations becoming
> attached to it.
> 
> To coin a possibility, women who were perceived as
> sluts tended to end up as
> scullery-maids, rather than vice versa.
> 
>         Counter-intuitive, I agree.   :-(
> 
> Robin 
> 



       
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