# How did the word "bitch" come to be associated with ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2016, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169 "2016-01-25T12:54:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/1 "2016-01-25T12:54:15Z")
with a nasty or mean lady? I know - of course - that it is synonymous with a female dog. But is there any connection between that and a nasty or mean lady? I Googled “what is the connection between “bitch” and nasty lady” but found nothing promising. I also went to “[www.ask.com](http://www.ask.com)” and was surprised to see that site was taken over by Google and now, when you go to that site, you are taken directly to Google. Would anyone know the connection between “bitch” and mean or nasty lady? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/2 "2016-01-25T13:01:29Z")
Other than simple misogyny, you mean? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/3 "2016-01-25T13:07:01Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > with a nasty or mean lady? > > I know - of course - that it is synonymous with a female dog. But is there any connection between that and a nasty or mean lady? > > I Googled “what is the connection between “bitch” and nasty lady” but found nothing promising. > > I also went to “[www.ask.com](http://www.ask.com)” and was surprised to see that site was taken over by Google and now, when you go to that site, you are taken directly to Google. > > Would anyone know the connection between “bitch” and mean or nasty lady? I’ve got a theory about it, but it’s not bolstered with sufficient research. Here it is, for what it’s worth. In classical Rome, _lupa_ = “she-wolf” not only meant a female wolf, but also meant a prostitute. The brothel in Pompeii was known as the _lupanar_, meaning “wolf den”. I suspect that calling a woman a “bitch” = “she-dog” was an only slightly veiled way of calling her a “she-wolf” = “whore”. The practice of insulting women by calling them “she-dogs” or “bitches” goes back many centuries. I’ve encountered enough examples to show me that this isn’t a recent use of the term (although the characterization of a “bitch” as a nasty, petty woman might be), but I can’t recall the examples now, and can’t say how far back they go. So there you go. Although calling any person, man or woman, a “dog” has been an insult for quite a while, it hasn’t the bite that “bitch” has, and I suspect that the further implication of sexual impropriety is what originally gave it the extra offensiveness. Today, people have forgotten the original intention, but the stigma attached to the insult remains. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/4 "2016-01-25T13:56:20Z")
There is, not surprisingly, a Wikipedia page devoted to the use of “bitch” as an insult. Here’s what it saus about the history of the word: > [@](#): > > History > > Literally, a bitch is a female dog. Its original use as an insult was based on a comparison of a woman to a dog in heat. > The term bitch comes from the 1150[citation needed] word bicche, which was developed from the Old English word bicce. It also may have been derived from the Old Norse word bikkja for “female dog”. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term meaning “female dog” to around 1000 A.D.[2] > > It is believed that the definition of a female dog for the term bitch derived from the Greek Goddess Artemis. This connection was made because she is the goddess of the hunt. She was often portrayed with a pack of hunting dogs and sometimes transformed into an animal herself.[3] She is free, vigorous, cold, impetuous, unsympathetic, beautiful.[4] > > As a derogatory term for women, it has been in use since the fourteenth[5] or fifteenth century.[2] Its earliest slang meaning mainly referred to sexual behavior, according to the English language historian Geoffrey Hughes:[6] > 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 Arthur and Merlin … while in a spirited exchange in the Chester Play (ca. 1400) a character demands: “Whom callest thou queine, skabde bitch?” (“Who are you calling a whore, you miserable bitch?”). > > Bitch remained a strong insult through the nineteenth century. The entry in Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) reads : > 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 Billinsgate or St Giles answer–“I may be a whore, but can’t be a bitch.”[7] > > Throughout the word’s evolution into the nineteenth century, it lessened from Grose’s claim. The Oxford English Dictionary within the nineteenth century described the insult as “strictly a lewd or sensual woman”.[8] 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.[9] > > The next resurgence of the word bitch as an insult to women occurred during the 1920s. 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.[10] Ernest Hemingway was a strong proponent of the term during this time. He was known to expand the meaning of “bitch” to a more modern definition. He used it to represent favorable qualities such as ferocity, edginess, and grit.[11] It was during this time that women began gaining more freedom (such as the right to vote through the Nineteenth Amendment).[12] This new found freedom women possessed upset the male-dominated society making anti feminist men of the time feel threatened, possibly leading to retaliation through name-calling. The word “bitch” during the twenties meant “malicious or consciously attempting to harm,” “difficult, annoying, or interfering,” and “sexually brazen or overly vulgar”.[13] > **[Bitch (slang)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch_(insult))** > > Bitch (/bɪtʃ/) is a pejorative slang word for a person, usually a woman. When applied to a woman or girl, it means someone who is belligerent, unreasonable, malicious, controlling, aggressive, or dominant. When applied to a man or boy, bitch reverses its meaning and is a derogatory term for being subordinate, weak, or cowardly.\[citation needed\] In gay speech the word bitch can refer approvingly to a man who is unusually assertive or has the characteristics used pejoratively of a woman.\[cita The... Note that, although it doesn’t trace the use back to Latin, it does equate “bitch” to “sexually licentious” as the root of the insult. It derives this from the behavior of a female dog “in heat”. This isn’t inconsistent with my suggestion – lots of different groups having dogs must have observed the behavior of sexually active female dogs and drawn the same parallel. That the Romans used the term shows that the concept goes back before 1100 CE. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/5 "2016-01-25T14:34:23Z")
Female dogs have a reputation for being less obedient and loyal than the males. This is even more so when they are in heat, gravid, and raising a litter. It’s also a broad generalization, and perhaps not true at all. Have you ever seen the males when a female in heat is in the area? Far from loyal and obedient in that case. I’m guessing the most effective part of the insult is that women don’t like being compared to dogs, while men can take it as a compliment. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/6 "2016-01-25T14:44:11Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > with a nasty or mean lady? > > I know - of course - that it is synonymous with a female dog. But is there any connection between that and a nasty or mean lady? > > I Googled “what is the connection between “bitch” and nasty lady” but found nothing promising. > > I also went to “[www.ask.com](http://www.ask.com)” and was surprised to see that site was taken over by Google and now, when you go to that site, you are taken directly to Google. > > Would anyone know the connection between “bitch” and mean or nasty lady? It seems to me calling a woman a dog in heat is pretty clear. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/7 "2016-01-25T15:01:24Z")
This is particularly American. On this side of the Atlantic, calling a woman a bitch would be pretty rude, but not horrifically so. It’s a term more likely to be used by a woman about another woman, implying that the “bitch” had done her a disservice. “mean or nasty lady?” would be fairly accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/8 "2016-01-25T15:11:02Z")
In Spanish _perra_ (female dog) is also an insulting term for a woman but has more of a connotation of “prostitute” rather than someone who is ill-tempered. _Zorra_ (vixen, female fox) is probably more common. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/9 "2016-01-25T15:40:06Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In Spanish _perra_ (female dog) is also an insulting term for a woman but has more of a connotation of “prostitute” rather than someone who is ill-tempered. _Zorra_ (vixen, female fox) is probably more common. That ties in well with the Roman uses I cite above. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/10 "2016-01-25T15:52:19Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Female dogs have a reputation for being less obedient and loyal than the males. This is even more so when they are in heat, gravid, and raising a litter. It’s also a broad generalization, and perhaps not true at all. Have you ever seen the males when a female in heat is in the area? Far from loyal and obedient in that case. I’m guessing the most effective part of the insult is that women don’t like being compared to dogs, while men can take it as a compliment. Oh no. Really? The greatest dog I ever knew was a female. The Greatest Dog I Ever Knew: One evening many years ago, I drove into a donut shop and she was roaming around the parking lot looking very scared and lonely - **very extremely scared!** I called over to her and motioned for her to come see me. She jumped right into my car and she would not leave my side from that moment on. For the first few days I had her, she got a grip on me - both physically and emotionally and she never, ever let go. I never ever understood how it was that someone would abandon the greatest dog in the world. I kid you not! She was def the greatest dog in this world. Bar none! At least the greatest that I ever met. She was just wonderful! She was a medium sized dog. She looked a little like a mix between a German Shepard and a Labrador. But her personality and her character were just perfect! Absolutely perfect. I never met a dog like her before or since. She was just amazing One day I’ll tell you the entire story. My friendship with her was def one of the happiest chapters in my life! ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/11 "2016-01-25T15:54:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Other than simple misogyny, you mean? I’m not sure I understand what you mean. If you’d like to explain it, I’d be happy to understand. Do you mean to say that anytime someone calls a woman a “bitch” they are exhibiting symptoms of misogyny? If they are seriously trying to insult her, I don’t see why that would mean that using that word would qualify them as a misogynist. But, is that what you mean? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/12 "2016-01-25T15:59:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve got a theory about it, but it’s not bolstered with sufficient research. Here it is, for what it’s worth. > In classical Rome, _lupa_ = “she-wolf” not only meant a female wolf, but also meant a prostitute. The brothel in Pompeii was known as the _lupanar_, meaning “wolf den”. > > I suspect that calling a woman a “bitch” = “she-dog” was an only slightly veiled way of calling her a “she-wolf” = “whore”. > > The practice of insulting women by calling them “she-dogs” or “bitches” goes back many centuries. I’ve encountered enough examples to show me that this isn’t a recent use of the term (although the characterization of a “bitch” as a nasty, petty woman might be), but I can’t recall the examples now, and can’t say how far back they go. > So there you go. Although calling any person, man or woman, a “dog” has been an insult for quite a while, it hasn’t the bite that “bitch” has, and I suspect that the further implication of sexual impropriety is what originally gave it the extra offensiveness. Today, people have forgotten the original intention, but the stigma attached to the insult remains. I just wanted to say that I was very impressed with the effort you must have made to produce such a comprehensive explanation. I have never started a thread in this forum before and I was very surprised to see so many quality responses. Really, very impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/13 "2016-01-25T16:05:13Z")
Back when I was looking to get my first dog and was talking with different breeders and going to shows, it was odd hearing the B word tossed about so casually. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/14 "2016-01-25T17:07:05Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m guessing the most effective part of the insult is that women don’t like being compared to dogs, while men can take it as a compliment. ? The term “dog” for a man is definitely not a compliment in English. Shakespeare alone has a zillion uncomplimentary uses of the term: > [@](#): > > O slave, of no more trust than love that’s hired! […] Slave, soulless villain, dog! (_Antony and Cleopatra_ v.ii) > > Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear’d cur of Iceland! […] egregious dog […] O viper vile […] (_Henry V_ ii.i) > > Lay hands on him: a dog! […] He brags his service […] (_Cymbeline_ v.iii) > > So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard […] (_Henry IV Part II_ i.iii) > > You whoreson dog! you slave! you cur! (_King Lear_ i.iv) > > You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog […] O, be thou damn’d, inexecrable dog! (_Merchant of Venice_ i.iii, iv.iii) And hundreds more. While it’s true that modern slang does include some jokingly affectionate senses of “dog” as a term for a man, it’s not so much a compliment as a well-known traditional insult used in jest. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/15 "2016-01-25T17:14:53Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > ? The term “dog” for a man is definitely not a compliment in English. Shakespeare alone has a zillion uncomplimentary uses of the term: > > And hundreds more. While it’s true that modern slang does include some jokingly affectionate senses of “dog” as a term for a man, it’s not so much a compliment as a well-known traditional insult used in jest. Yes, I suppose you have it right historically. I was thinking of modern usage like “You sly dog”, which is used as a compliment but there are probably a lot more derogatory uses. ---
**Author:** ![Phu\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Phu\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phu_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/16 "2016-01-25T17:30:37Z")
Fer cryin out loud yer all way off base. Bitch began becomin popular again when bikers started referrin to their women as bitches in the late 50s, early 60s. Phu Cat ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/17 "2016-01-25T18:06:56Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I was thinking of modern usage like “You sly dog”, which is used as a compliment but there are probably a lot more derogatory uses. But as I said, phrases like “you sly dog” are perceived as complimentary **only because they’re insults used jokingly**. “Sly dog” definitely started out as a non-ironic derogatory expression for a man who was both **sly** , i.e., underhanded and deceitful, and a **dog** , i.e., a skulking cur, a craven who’s too ignoble to pursue his aims openly. It was traditionally used in its primary sense as a deliberate insult, and resented as such, as in the following dialogue: > [@](#): > > _Sir H._ […] that sly dog, the Marqis— > _Lady C._ None of your reflections, sir; the Marqis is a person of honour […] (_High Life Below Stairs_ ii.i) I don’t think there’s any phrase using “dog” as an epithet for a man in the English language that didn’t originate as a straightforward direct insult, even if it later developed an indirect implication of a jesting compliment. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/18 "2016-01-25T18:16:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In Spanish _perra_ (female dog) is also an insulting term for a woman but has more of a connotation of “prostitute” rather than someone who is ill-tempered. _Zorra_ (vixen, female fox) is probably more common. In high school, a friend of mine who was a Spanish exchange student was amazed to hear an attractive woman called a “fox” and said it was an insult for a woman back home. ---
**Author:** ![ThornyRose2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@ThornyRose2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThornyRose2000)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/19 "2016-01-25T18:55:46Z")
I’ve always told people that called me a bitch that they are correct. I am a Babe In Total Control of Herself. Narcissistic? Maybe, but it shuts them up. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169/20 "2016-01-25T20:17:34Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Yes, I suppose you have it right historically. I was thinking of modern usage like “You sly dog”, which is used as a compliment but there are probably a lot more derogatory uses. > > > [@Kimstu](#): > > > > But as I said, phrases like “you sly dog” are perceived as complimentary **only because they’re insults used jokingly**. > > > > “Sly dog” definitely started out as a non-ironic derogatory expression for a man who was both **sly** , i.e., underhanded and deceitful, and a **dog** , i.e., a skulking cur, a craven who’s too ignoble to pursue his aims openly. > > > > It was traditionally used in its primary sense as a deliberate insult, and resented as such, as in the following dialogue: > > > > I don’t think there’s any phrase using “dog” as an epithet for a man in the English language that didn’t originate as a straightforward direct insult, even if it later developed an indirect implication of a jesting compliment. I word I learned (to me vaguely insulting, but language by its nature is a YMMV thing), and may be from the South, but I have seen it _only_ coupled to President Bill Clinton, is “horn-dog.” Re YMMV: men are praised for sexual conquest often with no regard to any otherwise immorality–or precisely because of it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-bitch-come-to-be-associated-with/744169.md?page=2)