Editing Bitch (slang) (section)

==History==
[[File:Pregnant bitch mongrel Jan 2008 Shot in Jalandhar Punjab India by gopal1035 017.jpg|thumb|Literally, a ''[[Dog|bitch]]'' is a female dog; as an insult, it originally compared a woman to a dog [[in heat]]]]
According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the term ''bitch'' comes from the Old English word ''bicce'' or ''bicge'', meaning "female dog", which dates to around 1000 CE. It may have derived from the earlier Old Norse word ''bikkja'', also meaning "female dog".<ref name=OED>{{citation |contribution=bitch, n. 1 |title=Oxford English Dictionary Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |contribution-url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/19524?isAdvanced=false&result=1&rskey=ucGD6t& |access-date=10 August 2017 |title-link=Oxford English Dictionary |archive-date=17 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517024805/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/bitch_n1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nytimes07">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/nyregion/07bword.html|title=It's a Female Dog, or Worse. Or Endearing. And Illegal?|last=Grynbaum|first=Michael M.|date=August 7, 2007|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2009-10-01|archive-date=2008-04-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424143741/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/nyregion/07bword.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

"Dog" has long been used as an insult toward both women and men. In [[ancient Greece]], dog was often used in a derogatory sense to refer to someone whose behavior was improper or transgressive. This could include shamelessness or lack of restraint, lack of hospitality, lack of loyalty, and indiscriminate or excessive violence, among other qualities.<ref name="Franco">{{cite book |last=Franco |first=Cristiana |title= Shameless: The Canine and the Feminine in Ancient Greece |publisher= University of California Press |date=2014 |isbn= 978-0-520-27340-5|oclc=886107785}}</ref> Over time, classicist C. Franco argues, a "persistent symbolic connection" developed between dogs and women in Greek literature that expressed and reinforced women's subordinate position in society and their supposedly inferior nature.<ref name="Franco" />

There may also be a connection between less literal senses of "bitch" and the Greek goddess [[Artemis]]. As she is the goddess of the hunt, she was often portrayed with a pack of hunting dogs and sometimes transformed into an animal herself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://clarebayley.com/2011/06/bitch-a-history/|title=The Evolution of Bitch in the English Language|access-date=October 20, 2015|website=Bitch a History|last=Bayley|first=Clare|archive-date=September 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907162256/http://clarebayley.com/2011/06/bitch-a-history/|url-status=dead}}</ref> She was seen as free, vigorous, cold, impetuous, unsympathetic, wild, and beautiful.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Greek Goddesses|last=Higginson|first=Thomas|publisher=Middlebury College|page=197}}</ref>

The earliest use of "bitch" specifically as a derogatory term for women dates to the 15th century.<ref name="OED" /><ref name="nytimes07" /> Its earliest slang meaning mainly referred to [[human sexual behavior|sexual behavior]], according to the English language historian Geoffrey Hughes:<ref name="hughes">Hughes, Geoffrey. ''Encyclopedia of Swearing : The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World''. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2006.</ref>

<blockquote>
The early applications were to a promiscuous or sensual woman, a metaphorical extension of the behavior of a bitch in heat. Herein lies the original point of the powerful insult ''son of a bitch,'' found as ''biche sone'' ca. 1330 in ''[[Of Arthour and of Merlin|Arthur and Merlin]]'' ... while in a spirited exchange in the [[Chester Mystery Plays|''Chester Play'']] (ca. 1400) a character demands: "Whom callest thou queine, skabde bitch?" ("Who are you calling a whore, you miserable bitch?").
</blockquote>

''Bitch'' remained a strong insult through the nineteenth century. The entry in [[Francis Grose]]'s ''[[Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue]]'' (1785) reads:

<blockquote>
A she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appellation
that can be given to an English woman, even more
provoking than that of whore, as may be gathered from the
regular [[Billingsgate|Billinsgate]] or [[St Giles, London|St Giles]] answer—"I may be a
whore, but can't be a bitch."<ref>Grose, Francis. ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?pageno=20&fk_files=9510 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue]''. Hosted at [[Project Gutenberg]]. Retrieved on January 9, 2007.</ref>
</blockquote>
[[File:Consolidated B-24D-160CO Liberator Strawberry Bitch NoseArt Airpower NMUSAF 25Sep09 (14599816575).jpg|thumb|A preserved [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator]] at the [[National Museum of the United States Air Force]] with [[nose art]] titled "Strawberry Bitch" from c. 1942.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Consolidated B-24D Liberator |url=https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196286/consolidated-b-24d-liberator/https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196286/consolidated-b-24d-liberator/ |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=National Museum of the United States Air Force |language=en-US}}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Airplanes were often painted by American flight crews and named after women, popular characters or slang based on the art in magazines at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Noseart, a colorful view on WWII Aviation |url=https://www.flightjacket.com/blog/post/noseart-a-colorful-view-on-wwii-aviation |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=www.flightjacket.com |language=en |archive-date=2023-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727235115/https://www.flightjacket.com/blog/post/noseart-a-colorful-view-on-wwii-aviation |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
Throughout the word's evolution into the nineteenth century, it became gradually less offensive. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in the nineteenth century described the insult as "strictly a lewd or sensual woman".<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Bitch|last=Gross|first=Beverly|date=1994|journal=Salmagundi}}</ref> The word went through many similar phases throughout history. It was not until the 20th century that feminism began to reevaluate the term and its appropriation.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Social Harms of 'Bitch'|last1=Kleinman|first1=Sherryl|date=Spring 2009|journal=Sociological Analysis|first2=Matthew|last2=Ezzel|last3=Frost|first3=A. Corey|url=https://www.jmu.edu/socanth/sociology/wm_library/Ezzell.Reclaiming_Critical_Analysis.pdf|access-date=2021-03-25|archive-date=2021-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307002849/https://www.jmu.edu/socanth/sociology/wm_library/Ezzell.Reclaiming_Critical_Analysis.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 1920s, ''bitch'' became once again a common insult used against women. The term ''bitch'' became more popular in common language during this era. Between 1915 and 1930, the use of "bitch" in newspapers and literature more than doubled.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Google Ngram Viewer|url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=bitch&year_start=1915&year_end=1930&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%253B%252Cbitch%253B%252Cc0|website=books.google.com|access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref> The writing of [[Ernest Hemingway]] popularized the more modern meaning of "bitch" in this era. He used it to represent favorable qualities such as ferocity, edginess, and grit.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Meet the New Bitch|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/meet-the-new-bitch/386246/|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=17 March 2015|access-date=2015-10-23|archive-date=2015-10-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151027001735/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/meet-the-new-bitch/386246/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was during this time that women began gaining more freedom (such as the right to vote through the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women%27s Right to Vote|url=https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=13&title.raw=19th+Amendment+to+the+U.S.+Constitution:+Women%2527s+Right+to+Vote|website=www.archives.gov|access-date=2015-10-20|archive-date=2015-10-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020043844/http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=13&title.raw=19th+Amendment+to+the+U.S.+Constitution%3A+Women%27s+Right+to+Vote|url-status=live}}</ref> The word "bitch" during the twenties meant "malicious or consciously attempting to harm", "difficult, annoying, or interfering", and "sexually brazen or overly vulgar".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoe-triska/post_4332_b_2526243.html|title=You Say 'Bitch' Like It's A Bad Thing: Examining the Implications of the Notorious Word|date=January 23, 2013|access-date=October 18, 2015|website=The Huffington Post|last=Triska|first=Zoë|archive-date=May 17, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517024804/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/post_b_2526243|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Dr. Timothy Jay, there are "over 70 different taboo words", but 80 percent of the time only ten words are used, and ''bitch'' is included in that set.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jay |first1=Timothy |title=The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words |journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science |date=March 2009 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=153–161 |doi=10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01115.x |pmid=26158942 |s2cid=34370535 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/894512 |access-date=2018-04-20 |archive-date=2020-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326155704/https://zenodo.org/record/894512 |url-status=live }}</ref> Being called the term ''bitch'' has been associated with worsening the mental health of women.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Klonoff|first1=Elizabeth A.|last2=Landrine|first2=Hope|last3=Campbell|first3=Robin|date=March 2000|title=Sexist Discrimination May Account for Well-Known Gender Differences in Psychiatric Symptoms|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01025.x|journal=Psychology of Women Quarterly|language=en|volume=24|issue=1|pages=93–99|doi=10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01025.x|s2cid=143941020|issn=0361-6843|access-date=2023-01-16|archive-date=2023-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116233002/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01025.x|url-status=live}}</ref>