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5 - Basic Bitch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2024

Karen Stollznow
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Queensland
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Summary

Even though the word has been around for over one thousand years, bitch has proven that an old dog can be taught new tricks. Over the centuries, bitch has become a linguistic chameleon with many different meanings and uses. Bitch has become a shape-shifter too, morphing into modern slang spellings like biatch, biznatch, and betch. Bitch is a versatile word. It can behave like a noun, an adjective, a verb, or an interjection, while it also makes a cameo appearance in lots of idioms. Bitch can be a bitch of a word. Calling someone a bitch once seemed to be a pretty straightforward insult, but today – after so many variations, reinventions, and attempts to reclaim the word – it’s not always clear what bitch really means. Nowadays, the word appears in numerous other languages too, from Arabic and Japanese to Spanish and Zulu. This chapter takes a look at bitch in the present day, and beyond.

Type
Chapter
Information
Bitch
The Journey of a Word
, pp. 131 - 161
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Basic Bitch
  • Karen Stollznow, Griffith University, Queensland
  • Book: Bitch
  • Online publication: 13 June 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009392358.006
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Basic Bitch
  • Karen Stollznow, Griffith University, Queensland
  • Book: Bitch
  • Online publication: 13 June 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009392358.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Basic Bitch
  • Karen Stollznow, Griffith University, Queensland
  • Book: Bitch
  • Online publication: 13 June 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009392358.006
Available formats
×