Re: how many bastards are there, anyway?

Matt Beckwith (beckwith@jaxnet.com)
3 Sep 1996 04:20:21 GMT

allin1@schools.minedu.govt.nz (Steve Caskey) wrote:
>In Article <50d71e$sj9@jaxnet.southeast.net>
>Matt Beckwith <beckwith@jaxnet.com> writes:
>>jjohnson@asrr.arsusda.gov (Judy Johnson) wrote:
>>>Matt Beckwith <beckwith@jaxnet.com> wrote:
>>>>I stand corrected. I was thinking a cuckold was the promiscuous man.
>>>>It's rather the husband whose wife commits adultery. Anybody know >>>>the
>>>>etymology of this word? Thanks to those who so politely corrected >>>>me.
>>>
>>>Um...did you *read* my post?
>>>
>>>Judy "straight from the dictionary" Johnson
>>
>>This "Um..." is insulting. It's like the currently popular adolescent
>>expression, "Hello-o-o!" as if to say, "Is anybody home?" I suppose it
>>makes you feel superior (or less inferior) to think that someone might
>>not be as smart as you are.
>
>You still didn't answer her question.
>
>She answered yours. Politely, if my memory serves me correctly. Hell, >I
>don't need to rely on anything as flakey as that, thanks to AltaVista...
>
>== begin blast from the past ==
>{This is Matt}
>>Wow, somebody actually answered a post of mine with something other >>than
>>hostility. I think this is going to be a good day!
>
>>So it isn't that cuckolds are superior by virtue of being cuckolds, but
>>that women sleep with men who are attractive to them, and the >>attractive
>>men become cuckolds because so many women want them.
>
>{This is Judy}
>Well, I hope this isn't taken as being hostile, but I'd like to
>politely point out that you've got your cuckold on the wrong foot.
>
>From my American Heritage dictionary:
>
>[begin quote]
>
>cuckold (k€k eld, k€k -) noun; A man married to an unfaithful wife.
>
>verb, transitive; cuckolded, cuckolding, cuckolds; To make a cuckold
>of.
>
>[Middle English cokewald, from Anglo-Norman *cucuald, from cucu, the
>cuckoo, from Vulgar Latin *cucc€lus, from Latin cuc€lus.]
>
>Word History: In our era of more relaxed sexual mores, the allusion to
>the cuckoo on which the word cuckold is based may be little
>appreciated. The female of some Old World cuckoos lays its eggs in the
>nests of other birds, leaving them to be cared for by the resident
>nesters. This parasitic tendency has given the female bird a
>figurative reputation for unfaithfulness as well. Hence in Old French
>we find the word cucuault, composed of cocu, "cuckoo, cuckold," and
>the pejorative suffix -ald and used to designate a husband whose wife
>has wandered afield like the female cuckoo. An earlier assumed form of
>the Old French word was borrowed into Middle English by way of
>Anglo-Norman. Middle English cokewold, the ancestor of Modern English
>cuckold, is first recorded in a work written around 1250.
>
>[end quote]
>
>So if the attractive man is not married to the woman, he is not the
>cuckold, because that's in the husband's job description.
>== end blasting ==
>
>So if you find the "Um..." insulting, you need to sit down for a bit >with a
>stiff drink and a good book. You know, get away from Usenet for a wee
>while, rediscover a life, that sort of thing. Your perceptions are
>becoming warped.
>
>Or you deserved it.

No one deserves to have his feelings hurt.

There were three posts correcting my use of the word "cuckold". The
first one I read but misunderstood. The second, I finally understood.
So I thanked them both. The one you quoted above I never saw. (I notice
that I miss some posts, perhaps because the Netscape newsreader will mark
posts read which were never displayed, if they were retrieved by your
site between the time that you displayed the threads and the time you
finished reading them.)

You (and some others in this group) seem to think it's okay to hurt
people's feelings, that there are certain things those other people can
do (such as posting without reading the FAQ) which makes them fair game
for maliciousness and hostility. I was raised a bit differently. I
don't think hurtfulness is okay in any circumstance.

There is an insult implied in this practice (common on Usenet) of
starting a post with "Um..." In my last post I was drawing attention to
that insult, for any who are interested. If you don't agree that it's
insulting, that's fine. We don't have to agree on everything. It's just
my opinion.

By the way, Judy, thanks for the information about the word "cuckold".

Have you guys read the post of that guy (I think his name may have been
David) recently on this topic, the long post that talks about how our
society has taken on the cuckold role? That was possibly the most
interesting and heavy-duty post I've ever read on Usenet. I'm still
reeling from that one.

-- 



Matt Beckwith                        

http://users.southeast.net/~beckwith/