After having been recently reminded of the illustrations of Edmund Dulac, I decided to read a book of children's fairy tales illustrated by him. In a Cinderella story "retold by Edmund Quiller-Couch" (1910, I think) I found this passage when she was being verbally abused by her step-sisters:
"Look at your hands--faugh! How can you suppose we should allow you to touch a ribbon, or even come near us, with such hands? Run downstairs, slut, and put yourself under the kitchen pump..."Moments later the narrator explains:
"When she had done her work she used to creep away to the chimney-corner and seat herself among the cinders, and from this the household name for her came to be Cinder-slut; but the younger sister, who was not so ill-tempered as the elder, called her Cinderella."Quiller-Couch is obviously using the term in the sense of "slattern." And that's how the OED defines "slut." The first definition is "A woman of dirty, slovenly, or untidy habits or appearance," and the secondary ones include "a kitchen maid" and "a woman of low or loose character; a bold or impudent girl." That last one comes closest to the sexual connotations of modern usage.
So the next time you encounter a girl who is besmirched from sliding head-first into third base or changing the oil in the car, you can say "you need to clean yourself up, slut" and the OED will back you up. But make sure she isn't still holding the wrench.
Reposted from 2010.
Edmund's interpretation of 'Cinderella' seems a bit imaginative. The original German, as recorded by the Brothers Grimm, gives her the name 'Aschenputtel'. Since the Grimms were (and are) among the most respected linquists/literary experts in German History, it's unlikely they screwed things up, and if you read the original versions of the fairy tales compiled by the Grimm brothers, they clearly didn't hold back on the sex and violence (those tales are nothing like the Disney versions!) 'Puttel' best translates as 'silly/stupid', formed from the (usually affectionate) diminutive form of 'Pute', a word for Turkey. So instead of 'slut', it should be something like 'stupid/silly little ash girl'. A little harsher than 'Cinder-girl', perhaps, but nowhere near 'Ash-slut', and with nothing like that connotation.
ReplyDeleteSee also: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0510a.html
Perrault's description ("When she had done her work, she used to go to the chimney corner, and sit down there in the cinders and ashes, which caused her to be called Cinderwench.") is not dissimilar. I Quiller-Couch's is about the same, and doesn't have "that" connotation - just an implication of dirty from sitting by the chimney.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I cannot recall title or publisher, but the living history museum where I used to work carried a number of reprinted Victorian booklets, one of which was a collection of children's poems. One poem that encouraged children to be industrious and help out around the house spoke of the little girl in the poem as helpful and hardworking, saying, "she is no lazy slut." I had intended to look up period usage of the term "slut" to see if it's use varied from that of today, but never got around to it. This post certainly sheds some light on the issue. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThere is no known "original" Cinderella story, and it's certainly not the Grimm's version.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to my first opportunity to call someone a niggardly slut, confident in the knowledge that eytmologies and dictionaries will protect me from any misapplied violence.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting, because the exact same relation between those two words exists in German! The German word Schlampe ("slut") obviously stemps from schlampig (untidy, careless, mostly used to describe a person's character) or (ver)schlampen (to let something go, or to lose something through carelessness).
ReplyDeleteThe noun is used exclusively as a derogatory term for promiscuous women, and the adjective and verb never have those sexual connotations.
It also isn't unheard of when "talking dirty" in bed to say something like "Oh, you are a dirty [girl/boy/one] aren't you?"
DeleteI think the conflation of physical uncleanliness and perceived moral uncleanness is strong across languages. It is even hard to talk about the subject without using terms like "unclean", "dirty", "besmirch", etc.