Re[2]: Expletives (was Re: [tied] All of creation in Six and Seven)

At 10:35:08 PM on Friday, November 28, 2003, Glen Gordon
wrote:

> Another solution is word taboo. We see this in English
> too. I can think of a number of word-variant series that
> show this in action:

> shit, shite, shat

Not a good example, I think. <Shite> appears to continue OE
*<sci:tan> (cf. <besci:tan> 'to befoul' and ON <skíta>,
<skeit>, <skitinn>), with <shat> from the OE preterite
*<sca:t>.

> ass, arse

And <ass> 'arse' is an example of early /r/-loss, also found
in <passel> 'parcel' and a few others of 15th c. vintage, if
I remember correctly. Though I do think it likely that
survival of the /r/-less form was aided by the taboo effect.

Brian