Reminds me of a conversation I had with my linguistics professor, back in '78, when I returned to college after my divorce. The professor had been cautioning us about the use of slang words, saying that they were lazy ways of getting around a slack vocabulary.
Being one of those students who enjoyed challenging my teachers, I suggested that there was one word that I could think of that did not seem to have a satisfactory substitute (and no, it was not the "f" word. I didn't go there then, and while one or two of my fitional characters have used it, I do not. Nor do I particularly like hearing it). The professor got a twinkle in his eye - I had taken several classes from this professor already, some going back to the early 1960's - as he asked me to explain. I said, as discreetly as I could, that the technical term for a female dog had taken on many meanings. He took it from there, using the actual word, to show that is was not a slang expression at all, giving examples of it being used as a noun, as a verb, as a gerund, a participle, and so on. The class loved it and we all roared with laughter.
This makes two FB posts that you have referenced to me this morning, Abe. The first was completely invalid. Was this one a challenge?
I could point out that it is a very old Anglo-Saxon word, and one that was adopted into the French-influenced Middle English vocabulary and was used by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales.
Or I could point out to you that you are choosing to overstep a boundary that I have made very clear during this past week or so, since you, in your post, directed it to me personally.
You have had better ideas.
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