Quote:
Originally Posted by RWood
My teachers never seemed to like the use of certain Anglo-Saxon words like (as Lenny Bruce would say in his coy moments), "the short word for loving."
There was a constant effort in English classes when I went to school (at least in the schools I attended) to stress the elimination of short Anglo-Saxon words when there was another (longer) French derived word. In addition to awkward speech and writing patterns it also produced a gulf between writing for English classes and writing for Physics or History classes. I later adopted the AP Style Guide and the Chicago Manual of Style and have purged most of the high school English class material.
|
Some years ago while trying to teach my daughter about "acceptable" language I said that should one say, "BS." in society, everyone would know what you meant and it would be reasonably acceptable. However saying, "Bull S--t." would be frounded at. On the other hand, saying, "Male bovine feces." would probably seem cute. The bottom line is it stinks the same when you step in it, whether literally or societally.
I began to think about words and the "hows" & "whens" of their proper usage when I was 30 visiting a in a city park. During a dog show there, they announced over the loud speakers, "The showing of the bitches will begin at two o'clock." I cringed because I had been train (Pavlovenly) that "bitch" was a dirty word. I realized that it was not a dirty word when properly used. Further thinking made me realize that there were no dirty or bad words, just times when one should not use some words in certain ways and that every word has an acceptable time and circumstance for its usage. While this has not made me socially exceptable, it has allowed me to have a larger working vocabulary.
Also in concert with several previous posts, the word "vulgar" originally just meant "common" so those "common" Saxons were, of course, vulgar.