The Etymology of the word Bitch

When I was assigned to write a paper on the varied meanings and uses of a word, I chose this one because I thought it was a good example of the oddity of the English language.  This came from the Oxford English Dictionary.  I will be totally surprised if anyone actually reads this.  It's here more as bibliographical info.

bitch

bitch bit, sb.1 Forms: 1 bicce, bicge, 3-4 bicche, 4 bycche, biche, 5 bych(e, (begch), 5-6 bytch(e, 9 Sc. bich, 6- bitch. [OE. bicce, elsewhere in Teutonic only in ONor. bikkja: it is altogether uncertain what is the relatio n of the two words, whether they are cognate, or if not, which is adopted from the other. If the ONor. bikkja was the original, it may, as shown by Grimm, be ad. Lapp. pittja: but the converse is equally possible. Ger. betze, petze (only modern), if relat ed at all, must be a germanized form of bitch. The history of the Fr. biche bitch, and biche fawn, and their relation, if any, to the Eng. word, are unknown. There is a Sc. form bick sometimes affected in the pronunciation of sense 1, to avoid association with sense 2. ]

1.

a. The female of the dog.

• C. 1000 Ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 120 Canicula, bice.

• C. 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 362 Biccean meolc.

• C. 1300 K. Alis. 5394 Comen tigres many hundre; Graye bicchen als it waren.

• 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. III. 141 He fonde a bicche eue þe childe souke;

• 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. i. (1495) 742 The bytche bringeth forth blynde whelpes.

• 1542 Brinklow Complaynt xxiv. (1874) 63 As chast as a sawt bytch.

• 1598 Shaks. Merry W. iii. v. 11 A blinde bitches Puppies, fifteene i'th litter.

• A. 1680 Butler Rem. xvii. (1759) 12.

• 1842 Lever Handy Andy ii. 14 All the dogs are well, I hope, and my favourite bitch.

b. The female of the fox, wolf, and occasionally of other beasts; usually in combination with the name of the species. (Also as in sense 2.)

• 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. iii. ii. (Arb.) 144 The dogge tiger beynge thus kylled they..came to the denne where the bytche remayned with her twoo younge suckynge whelpes.

• 1569 Spenser Sonn. vii.

• A. 1687 Cotton Aeneid Burlesqued (1692) 70 I saw Mischievous bitchfox Helena.

• 1749 Fielding Tom Jones x. vii, We have got the dog fox, I warrant the bitch is not far off.

• 1820 Scott Monast. xxxvi, As if ye had been littered of bitch-wolves, not born of women.

• 1825 Bro. Jonathan III. 265 The whelp of a bitch-catamount.

2.

a. Applied opprobriously to a woman; strictly, a lewd or sensual woman. Not now in decent use but formerly common in literature. In mod. use, esp. a malicious or treacherous woman; of things: something outstandingly d ifficult or unpleasant. (See also son of a bitch.)

• ? A. 1400 Chester Pl. (1843) 181 Whom calleste thou queine, skabde biche?

• 1575 J. Still Gamm. Gurton ii. ii, Come out, thou hungry needy bitch.

• 1675 Hobbes Odyssey xviii. 310 Ulysses looking sourly answered, You Bitch.

• 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 9 An extravagant bitch of a wife.

• 1790 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Adv. Fut. Laureat Wks. 1812 II. 337 Call her Prostitute, Bawd, dirty Bitch.

• 1814 Byron Let. 15 Oct. (1830) I. 586 It is well that one of us is of such fame, since there is a sad deficit in the morale of that article upon my part,-all owing to my `bitch of a star', as Captain Tranchemont says o f his planet.

• 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1834) 446 You are a..son of a bitch.

• 1904 Kipling Traffics & Discoveries 165 After eight years, my father, cheated by your bitch of a country, he found out who was the upper dog in South Africa.

• 1913 D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers I. iv. 60 `Look at the children, you nasty little bitch!' he sneered.

• 1931 T. E. Lawrence Let. 10 June (1938) 722 `She' says the incarnate sailor, stroking the gangway of the Iron Duke, `can be a perfect bitch in a cross-sea.'

• 1931 R. Aldington Colonel's Daughter i. 50 What a preposterous old bitch that woman is.

• 1944 Wyndham Lewis Let. 20 Aug. (1963) 378 For it may be a bitch of a Peace.

• 1956 S. Beckett Godot i. p. 37 That's how it is on this bitch of an earth.

b. Applied to a man (less opprobrious, and somewhat whimsical, having the modern sense of `dog'). Not now in decent use.

• A. 1500 E.E. Misc. (1855) 54 He is a schrewed byche, In fayth, I trow, he be a wyche.

• 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xvii. iii, Landlord is a vast comical bitch.

• 1893 Stevenson Catriona xi. 123 Ay, Davie, ye're a queer character..a queer bitch after a', and I have no mind of meeting with the like of ye.

• 1916 Joyce Portrait of Artist v. 203 Is your lazy bitch of a brother gone yet?

c. A primitive form of lamp used in Alaska and Canada.

• 1904 E. Robins Magnetic North i. 233 `I'll light a piece of fat pine,' shouted the Boy...`Where's your bitch?' said Dillon... `Haven't you got a condensed milk can with some bacon grease in it, and a rag wick?'< /p>

• 1927 C. M. Russell Trails plowed Under 159 In the long winter nights their light was coal oil lamps or candles-sometimes they were forced to use a `bitch', which was a tin cup filled with bacon grease and a twisted rag wick.

• 1961 Canadian Geogr. Jrnl. Jan. 14/2 `Office' work was done by candlelight and sometimes by nothing better than a `bitch'-a wick in a shallow tin of tallow.

3. Comb. and attrib., as (sense 1) bitch-puppy, -whelp; (sense 2) bitch-baby, -clout, -daughter, -hunter, -son; bitch-daughter (obs.), the nightmare; bitch-fou a. (Sc.), as drunk and sick as a bitch, `beastly' drunk; bitch-goddess, in William James's phr. (see quot. 1906); cf. success sb. 3.

• A. 1400 Cov. Myst. 218 Come fforthe, thou hore, and stynkynge *byche-clowte.

• 1483 Cath. Angl. 31 Þe *Bych-doghter, epialta, noxa.

• 1786 Burns Interv. Ld. Dare, I've been..*bitch-fou 'mang godly priests.

• 1906 W. James Let. 11 Sept. (1920) II. 260 A symptom of the moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the *bitch-goddess success.

• 1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley ix. 125 He realized now that the bitch-goddess of success had two main appetites: one for flattery, adulation, stroking and tickling such as writers and artists gave her; but the oth er a grimmer appetite for meat and bones.

• 1960 Cambr. Mag. 21 May 554/2 The pursuit, in our time, in the University and outside, of the Bitch Goddess Success, of a `better living' without quality.

• 1787 Hunter in Phil. Trans. LXXVII. 255 My Lord Clanbrassil purchased a *Bitch-puppy.

• C. 1330 Arth. & Merl; 8487 *Biche sone! thou drawest amis.

• C. 1480 Gloss. in Wright Voc. 251 Hec catula, a *byche qwelpe.

• 1601 Holland Pliny I. 220 The *bitch-whelpe that commeth of the first litter.

bitch

bitch, sb.2 Mining. Also biche, beche, q.v.

• 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. s.v. Boring, For drawing up the Rods, we have, to hold them, an Iron Instrument called a Bitch, and, for unscrewing them, two more we call Dogs.

• 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Biche, a tool ending below in a conical cavity, for recovering broken rods from a bore-hole.

bitch

bitch, v.1 [f. bitch sb.1 sense 2. ]

1. intr. Obs.

a. To frequent the company of lewd women.

b. To call any one `bitch.'

• 1675 C. Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 177 Jove, thou now art going a Bitching.

• 1687 C. Cotton Aeneid Burl. (1692) 43.

• 1709 Ramb. Fuddle-Caps 6 In wonderful Rage went to Cursing and Bitching.

2. trans. and intr. To behave bitchily towards (a person); to be spiteful, malicious, or unfair (to); to deceive (in sexual matters).

• 1934 E. Waugh Handful of Dust ii. 58, I quite enjoy coping-in fact I'm bitching him rather.

• 1936 D. Powell Turn, Magic Wheel ii. 125 She'd been bitched by everyone else..so that she wouldn't be surprised to have me leave her there in the rain.

• 1948 G. Greene Heart of Matter ii. iii. i. 199 She said, `I thought you were never coming. I bitched you so.'

• 1955 P. Wildeblood Against Law iii. 105 They're absolute hell, all having affairs with the Officers and bitching everybody like mad.

• 1958 B. Hamilton Too Much of Water xi. 248 She'd started bitching him from the beginning, with every man in sight.

• 1963 Listener 7 Feb. 263/1 A very Mayfair cast of a new play bitched and intrigued at a rehearsal with much verisimilitude and some wit.

bitch