One Hundred Words for Slut

Jezebel movie poster

Are there really fifty words for snow in the Eskimo/Inuit language? It’s said that Inuit have a huge number of terms for different types of snow – falling, flakes, needles, the type you’d use to make an igloo, etc. Wikipedia has a page disputing "50 words for snow" as a myth, but it also states that the Sami language used in Finland, Norway and Sweden has 180 words for snow. 

In upstate New York we have many ways to describe frozen stuff which falls out of the sky, lies on the ground, and makes our lives miserable for six months: sleet, graupel, powder, corn snow …. Let's just say that the Inuit, who live with snow and ice for most of the year, have many more. Moreover, I don’t really care how many words for snow there are.

However, I just had an eye-opening moment while composing the novel which, along with Rebel Puritan and The Reputed Wife, will conclude my series based on the scandalous life of Herodias Long of 17^th century Rhode Island. In a quest to keep my language accurate for the time, I consult The Historical Thesaurus online.

Slut. I wasn’t looking it up for Herodias, though some people think that I was right on the money applying that word to her. Herodias was spurned by many 19^th century genealogists for her marital and extra-marital hijinx. A fair amount of ink has been spilled psychoanalyzing her, and I’ve spent a lot of years getting into Herod’s head as I write about her.

However, I’m looking up slut as I bring to life the young woman who, in 1664, supplants Herod in George Gardner’s life: Lydia Ballou. I figure that slut was in use before 1664, but checked to be sure. The Historical Thesaurus contains words gleaned from the Oxford English Dictionary and the Thesaurus of Old English, and puts slut in use to describe an unchaste woman by 1450.

I can think of a whooooole bunch of similar words; many are modern, and several are even older than slut. Strumpet. Wench. Whore. However, I was dumbfounded to see the abundance of ways I could describe a loose woman.

There are 84 terms I could use in 1664 and preserve historical accuracy; from the Old English lufestre and scylcen to tub-tail and laced mutton. Surprisingly, tomboy and housewife were applied to loose women in the 1500s. Another 45 words have been added to the English language since 1664, making 129 in all. 

By comparison, there were only about 20 terms in play for a male lecher before 1664. Is that because the vast majority of plays and books about persons of loose morals were written by men? Were they less critical of their own sex, and inclined to be more inventive in describing women?

The Inuit are said to have 50 words for snow because that substance (in its many forms) is so vital to them. With 129 words in the English thesaurus for women of easy virtue, does that mean they are even more important in our lives? Or is it just that we love our sluttish wenches so?

Here’s the entire list for unchaste women from the Historical Thesaurus:

03.05.05.07.02|03.03.01 n

Unchastity :: sexual indulgence :: unchaste behaviour of woman :: unchaste/loose woman

There are 129 words at this level:

bepæcestre OE

firenhicgend OE

horcwene OE

lufestre OE

scand OE

scrætte OE

scylcen OE

synnecge OE

quean/cwene OE– now arch.

Whore/hore OE

wenchel c1300 

strumpet a1327 

wench 1362–1781 

parnel 1362–a1800 

filth 1402– obs. exc. dial. 

tickle-tail c1430 + 1869 dial. 

harlot 1432/50

slut c1450

kittock c1470–1706 Scots 

mignote 1489 

ribald a1500–1530 

sinner a1500–1688 

Kitty 1500/20–1572 

callet c1500–1785 

flag 1500/20–1535 + 1866 

trull 1519–1871 

miswoman 1528–a1600 

dant a1529 

stewed strumpet 1532–1575 

whore 1532–1575 

unchaghe 1534 

Katy 1535 

yaud 1545 Scots & northern dial. 

housewife/huswife 1546–1705 

jelot c1550(2) 

trinklet c1550 

whippet 1550–1597 

gillot 1557–1579/80 

Jezebel 1558

loon c1560–1828 Scots 

limmer 1566 + 1728 Scots 

marian 1567 

mort 1567–1812 cant 

mot/mott 1567– cant 

rannell 1573–1592 

blowze 1573–1719 

rig 1575–1694 + 1829– dial. 

kit a1577–1600 

poplet 1577 

laced mutton 1578–1694 

tomboy 1579–a1700 

Tib 1582–1681 

pucelle 1583–a1700 

harlotry 1584–c1836 

malkin/mawkin 1586 obs. exc. dial. 

light of love/light o' love/light a love 1589

flirt-gill 1592–1618 

wagtail 1592–1710 

hilding 1592–1713 

driggle-draggle 1593–1611 

tub-tail 1595 

franion 1596 

baggage 1596–1851 

hiren 1597–1615 

bona roba 1597–1680 + 1822 

lightskirts 1597/8

jay 1598–1611 

minx 1598–1728 + 1939

short-heels 1599 

cockatrice 1599–1747 

flirt 1600–1703 

light-heels 1602 

roba 1602 

fricatrice 1605–1708 + 1871 

rumbelow 1611–a1700 

open-tail a1618 

succubus 1622–1803 

snaphance a1625 

flap 1631 + 1892 dial. & slang 

nymph 1632

amorosa 1634 

puffkin 1638 

wrig 1638 

vizard 1652–1719 

In case you missed one of your favorite words to describe a soiled dove, here are more which came into use after 1664:

tomrig 1668–1728 

jilt 1672–1815 

crack 1676–1719 + 1785

buttered bun(s) 1679 

filthy 1681 

grass-girl 1691 

cousin a1700 cant Dict. + 1708 cant 

mobbed-head 1707 

trully 1711 

brim 1730/6–1808 

trollop 1742

trub 1746 dial. 

Cousin Betty 1749(2) 

demi-rep 1749–1887 

tittup 1762 + 1901 

buer 1807– slang & northern dial. 

lady of easy virtue 1809

blowen/blowing 1812–1851 slang 

sportswoman 1816 

fie-fie 1820 

trail 1825–1901 

streel/sthreal/sthreel 1842– chiefly Irish 

shickster 1846– slang 

trolly(-mog) 1851– dial. 

scarlet woman 1853

amazon 1860 fig. 

anonyma 1864–1889 

pick-up 1871

wish-wife 1886 

chippy 1886– slang, orig. US 

tart 1887– slang 

tartlet a1890 + 1961 

fly girl/fly-girl 1893– US slang 

demi-mondaine 1894–1969 

scrub 1900– slang 

demi-vierge 1908–1951 

floosie/floozie 1911

muff 1914– slang, orig. US 

tarty 1918 colloq. 

sporting girl/woman 1925– N. Amer. 

hooer 1937 Austral. & NZ 

half-virgin 1946–1965 

messer 1951 slang 

bim 1953 US slang 

demi-virgin 1953 

puta 1967– slang 

As for lustful men, they have far fewer descriptive words in the Historical Thesaurus, and I had to do numerous searches to find these terms:

galsere OE

lecher c1175

lecherer c1380–1605

priapist 1532

venerien 1567

franion 1571–1600 + 1810

colt 1586

luster 1591–1705

simpler 1592–1602

libertine 1593

twigger 1594

venerist 1596–1623

Corinthian 1596–1697 + 1785

tit 1599

venerian 1601

luxur 1604–1607 rare

libertine 1605

night-neaker 1611

niggler 1613–1659

libidinist 1628–1634

high-boy 1668–a1680

goat 1675

swinge-bow 1675

man of the town a1700–1785

town-bull 1709

capriped 1730/6 Dict. + 1916 + 1925

lothario 1756

satyr 1781– fig.

gay-deceiver 1803

playboy/play-boy 1829– colloq.

gay-dog 1900

lech 1934

ram 1935– colloq.

lizard 1935

tom(-)cat 1942– colloq., orig. US fig. transf.

skirt chaser 1943

stoat a1960–1978 fig.

Sources:

http://historicalthesaurus.arts.gla.ac.uk/category/?id=171919&qsearch=slut&word=slut&page=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jesebel_movieposter.jpg