bitch

英文詞源

bitch

bitch: [OE] The antecedents of Old English bicce ‘female dog’ are obscure. It may come from a prehistoric Germanic *bekjōn-, but the only related form among other Germanic languages appears to be Old Norse bikkja. The superficially similar French biche means ‘female deer’, and is probably not related. The use of the word as a derogatory term for ‘woman’ seems to have originated in the 14th century.

bitch (n.)

Old English bicce "female dog," probably from Old Norse bikkjuna "female of the dog" (also fox, wolf, and occasionally other beasts), which is of unknown origin. Grimm derives the Old Norse word from Lapp pittja, but OED notes that "the converse is equally possible." As a term of contempt applied to women, it dates from c. 1400; of a man, c. 1500, playfully, in the sense of "dog." Used among male homosexuals from 1930s. In modern (1990s, originally black English) slang, its use with reference to a man is sexually contemptuous, from the "woman" insult.

BITCH. A she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore. ["Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1811]

Bitch goddess coined 1906 by William James; the original one was success.

bitch (v.)

"to complain," attested at least from 1930, perhaps from the sense in bitchy, perhaps influenced by the verb meaning "to bungle, spoil," which is recorded from 1823. But bitched in this sense seems to echo Middle English bicched "cursed, bad," a general term of opprobrium (as in Chaucer's bicched bones "unlucky dice"), which despite the hesitation of OED, seems to be a derivative of bitch (n.).