- slut
- This term has been applied to women since the fifteenth century and is still in use. It can mean either that a woman or girl is thought to be dirty and untidy, or that she is a loose woman, a prostitute.In The Minister, by Maurice Edelman, a husband who has just discovered that his wife was unfaithful to him calls her ‘you slut’, and then expands it to ‘you filthy slut’. In The Late Risers, by Bernard Wolfe, ‘you slut’ is used aggressively by a man to a prostitute.In The Business of Loving, by Godfrey Smith, ‘you lousy slut’ is used admiringly to a woman and is almost as endearment. In former times ‘slut’ could be used almost as a synonym for ‘girl’, with no particular imputation of bad qualities, but it was usually qualified with a word like ‘sweet’, ‘dear’, ‘admirable’, etc. It was also used to kitchen maids, as in Joseph Andrews, by Henry Fielding, where Mrs Tow-wouse refers to her maid Betty as ‘you slut’ in fairly ordinary circumstances.In modern times a house maid would probably greatly object to such a term, which is invariably insulting between strangers, or a recognition of sexual intimacy between man and woman. ‘Black nigger slut!’ says a white girl in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers. In Bhowani Junction, by John Masters, ‘you little slut’ used to a woman by a man is a prelude to their more intimate relationship.
A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . Leslie Dunkling . 2015.