46: bitch Jan 24, 2015

Apologies for not having any Word Facts post yesterday. For that reason there will be two posts today, one at 10:30 (this post) and one at 5:30 p.m.
The word is 'bitch'. It comes from the Old English 'bicce' meaning, as it still does today, "female dog". How it became understood to mean "to express displeasure" [verb] and "a thing or situation that is unpleasant or difficult to deal with" [noun] is disputed, but the general consensus is that it originated from the phrase "that bitch could bite".
Previous
Previous

48: damn Jan 25, 2015

Next
Next

45: crap Jan 22, 2015