Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Why Can’t the English?
Set a good example to people whose
English is painful to your ears?
The Scots and the Irish leave you close to tears
There even are places where English completely disappears
In America, they haven’t used it for years!
– Lerner & Lowe (My Fair Lady)
Since taking over production on London Calling I have learned to straddle two worlds, both the old and the new. I change between idioms and spellings more than some people change underwear. I take care not to criticise or criticize, to labour or labor too hard, and to know when a good defence is a good offence.
English and its variants in the colonies is a great and robust language. Its roots are everywhere – in German, in Dutch, in the Latin of ancient Rome and the church, in the French of Norman invaders. But most notably it is the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. It can be beautiful and melodic. It can be cutting and witty. But not on Twitter.
Here is a typical exchange from the show account:
Invariably a modern Englishman, particularly on the left, will succumb to calling you a four-letter vulgarity linked to the female anatomy that either begins with a C or a T, whereas when Americans go the genitalia route it’s almost always masculine, as in “Don’t be a person whose first name is formally Richard!” or “I think you like to Hoover the male appendage of others!”
Why is this? Are our English cousins misogynistic at heart? Or is it just that the democratization (or is that “democratisation?”) of the internet means that the language no longer sends its best into battle? Wordsmithing is dead and it has left the field to the yobs and the gits.
Published in General
Bint is an Arabic word brought back to Britain from Egypt. It’s a young woman of a lower class. So they tell me. I don’t think it’s used much these days.
Ah mystery solved.
As far as where people with language skills have gone, when I was seeking unemployment here in Calif back in the 1990’s, I wanted to be able to list two occupations. Nursing assistant was a breeze, with that code number much used. There was NO code number for “writer” and so the best the woman clerk helping me with the forms could offer was “astrologer.”
A bit more complex than that. You know how you hear of some Arabic names like Osama bin Laden or Jewish names like David ben Gurion? The “bin” or “ben” means “son of,” just like Fitz (fils de) in Norman French. “Bint” is the female version in Arabic, in other words, “daughter of.”
There is an old song, “The Gentleman Soldier,” in which there is a line, “Two wives are allowed in the army, but one’s too many for me!” The second wife was not really a wife, but a camp follower. The wife and legitimate children might be back home in England, while the soldier was far away and in need of company. When in certain countries, the use of the Arabic word “bint” was borrowed into English to mean “girlfriend” or “side piece.” So that is when and how it came into English.
As time went on, it became slang among the lower orders to more generally be applied to girlfriend or second girl on the side/mistress. Gentlemen had mistresses. The lower orders had bints, if you see my meaning.
If we had taken up this word in American English, we might be referring to Kamala Harris as a bint or as Willie Brown’s old bint.
This was an enjoyable romp through the twists and turns of a word that had puzzled me for the last three years. And your using Kamala has the final example was the cherry on top.
Yes to the above. Bint=Daughter. Many women in (usually) Muslim countries are called “Binta” (I have known several). The perceived “lower class” aspect of it probably has to do with the Raj using it as described above to refer to the “spare.” It’s absolutely in keeping with prescribed British usage, to refer to Kamala Harris as “Willie Brown’s bint.” Perfect. Although it doesn’t always have that sexual connotation. It was one of my mother’s favorite terms of mild disparagement when confronted with feminine obstinacy or stupidity, as in “silly bint.” It’s not a word that’s regarded as terribly defamatory.
Oh but if I went ’round sayin’ I was Emperor, just because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!
May I have a word?
In defense of the Brits.
Since I have become a big fan of Brit Detective Crime shows, which are actually much more intelligent than ours, I have noticed to my great surprise that Brit TV seems to be much more politically incorrect than ours. This politically incorrectness allows them to deal with politically sensitive issues in more honest and appropriate ways that my woke Hollywood neighbors who write, direct and produce our shows would never even consider. This non-woke approach allows the intelligence to seep in, where on the other hand our woke TV people must consistently dumb down everything because you know after seeing something too intelligent for too long , one might start to think, and that might lead to the horrible circumstance of questioning the official narrative which of course we cannot have.
As to their use of words, I am actually shocked how it’s seems the two vocabularies ( ours and theirs) are converging, and how many idioms are exactly the same. Yes, they still drive on the wrong side of the street and say “boot” for the trunk of a car and other such rot but it does seem Americanism is seeping in. Oh the horror! By the way, on one of the shows I watched recently, one of the characters blamed the decline of British Culture on the influence of we Americans, which I think may be at least partially true.
I have to look up the history on the word “tart”.
It’s accurate and insulting, without being threatening, to call Kamala Harris an “old tart” as far as I can see.
From here:
What are some of the Brit Detective Crime shows you recommend.
I’m always looking for a new series … I’m watching Red Rock now.
For the sheer joy of it, Shakespeare and Hathaway.
Father Brown is fun, too.
Broadchurch is more serious and gets a B, B+.
Of course, Foyle’s War is must-see.
I haven’t really found a stinker yet.
Thank you
We loved Red Rock! Such a soap opera.
Taggart, Trial and Retribution, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Last Detective (on the lighter side), Shetland, A Touch of Frost
On Acorn: Line of Duty, Brokenwood Mysteries (Australian), George Gently, Rebus, Hidden
On IMDB (it’s a Prime add-on, free with some short commercials) City Homicide, also Australian.
Thanks