What do you think ‘slut’ meant?

LauraNorder

Happy to be a slut as I’m still in bed at 10.15 and can see dust on the dressing table. Not a slag though as Orlin is the only man ever allowed to share said bed.

???

I thought a slag was a prostitute who didn't charge. Slang for a nymphomaniac without class!

I thought Katherine Whitehorn redefined slut in the 60s when she wrote her wonderful piece about women coping with life, taking clothes out the laundry basket because they had nothing clean etc.
It's here if you want to read it. Almost 60 years since it was written!
uploads.guim.co.uk/2018/10/10/Whitehorn_sluts.jpg

My son was once really upset when I referred to myself as a slut but I meant it as someone who was rubbish domestically and he thought it meant promiscuous.

Slut to me is a put down word for a woman with perceived loose sexual morals. Not a professional sex-worker, just a "no better than she should be" woman.
The kind of woman who, if she were a man, would be called "a bit of a lad(wink wink)" but as she's a woman, double standards apply.

I think it's a damn funny thing to call your pudding.

"Slut" is either a slatternly housewife or housemaid, slut's wool being the fluff found under beds in rooms that are not swept often enough, or a woman of loose morals.

These days it is perfectly possible to call a promiscuous male a slut as well.

How Nigella was unaware of this I cannot think, as the dictionary has no politer definitions of the word.

Words are always evolving and changing their meaning.

The word slut, like slattern, meant some on who was sloppy, untidy, didn't obey the great god cleanliness.(I suspect that slut, slattern and sloppy, probably have much the same root word behind them.) From there it is easy to suggest that a woman whose home and person is dirty and is probably disorganised, is probably as careless, dirty and disorganised in her relationships.

Now that a womans worth is no longer judged by how white her doorstep and her washing is, it is easily to see how one meaning is used less and the other meaning becomes dominant.

I think Ms Lawson likes to shock I ve never watched her only in clips and found her need to turn all food in to such sexiness is a load of tripe (now make tripe sexy Ms L )

I've always taken it to describe a woman of loose morals.

In my part of the world you would never want to be called a slut as you would be 'easy' sexually, also the names tart and slag are used this way. A man is congratulated by his friends for being like this!

Very amusing, but you wouldn't call them that, would you? At least not if they weren't in an Eton Mess

I once called my daughter a dirty slut because her bedroom was always in a mess but she was furious thinking I meant she was putting it about ?

originally sluts were the same as slatterns...ie untidy women who were poor housekeepers

179. Farewell, Rewards and Fairies

Richard Corbet (1582–1635)


FAREWELL, rewards and fairies,
Good housewives now may say,
For now foul sluts in dairies
Do fare as well as they.
And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who of late for cleanness
Finds sixpence in her shoe?

Lament, lament, old Abbeys,
The Fairies’ lost command!
They did but change Priests’ babies,
But some have changed your land.
And all your children, sprung from thence,
Are now grown Puritans,
Who live as Changelings ever since
For love of your demains.

At morning and at evening both
You merry were and glad,
So little care of sleep or sloth
These pretty ladies had;
When Tom came home from labour,
Or Cis to milking rose,
Then merrily went their tabor,
And nimbly went their toes.

Witness those rings and roundelays
Of theirs, which yet remain,
Were footed in Queen Mary’s days
On many a grassy plain;
But since of late, Elizabeth,
And later, James came in,
They never danced on any heath
As when the time hath been.

By which we note the Fairies
Were of the old Profession.
Their songs were ‘Ave Mary’s’,
Their dances were Procession.
But now, alas, they all are dead;
Or gone beyond the seas;
Or farther for Religion fled;
Or else they take their ease.

A tell-tale in their company
They never could endure!
And whoso kept not secretly
Their mirth, was punished, sure;
It was a just and Christian deed
To pinch such black and blue.
Oh how the commonwealth doth want
Such Justices as you!

I always understood slut to mean a person who didn't bother much with housework or personal appearance; I commented to my DiL once that if you don't bother with cleaning you have to develop a slut mentality in order to ignore the chaos and dirt around you; she looked horrified and felt it was insulting. It does seem that some people regard the word as referring to morals, and not the state of your kitchen floor!

Trisher, thank you! That article made my morning!!

Trisher, thank you so much for finding that Katherine Whitehorn article. I thought it was hilarious at the time and kept it for some years. It’s still very funny and I can certainly own up to a number of the sins. I particularly liked the idea that there is no point in getting a wig. “If you can't keep your own hair tidy you will never manage to keep your toy hair tidy”.

I was taught a slut is a dirty untidy woman, these days it means a woman of questionable morals, I was also taught a lush was a drunk, now means lovely, great, confusing for anyone trying to learn the English language ??

Thanks Interested and Saxifrage I was so pleased to find it on-line. I remembered bits of it but I'd forgotten how really funny it was. KW was so talented.

Being called a slut has always been a real insult to any woman. Why Nigella would use it to describe a dessert is beyond me. Why not just use ‘decadent’?

Galaxy ? yes two words actually Publicity Seeker

Nigella is notorious for her imaginative descriptions of food, I find her Tv programmes very contrived and she has become a characature of herself.
The written recipes are sound enough though.

Nigella is a real tease in every sense of the word trust her to come up with this, I love her she has turned my husband into a good cook. He has all her books and always watches her on TV.
All the family say my husbands cooking is delicious. Suits me I never cook now. All thanks to Negella.

Never ever thought of it in a sexual context. Usually referred to a woman who was lax in personal hygiene and homecare.

BlueBelle

Slut is untidy a bit mucky
Slag is a woman who is sexually putting it around in my dictionary
Nigella Lawson just likes to shock so it doesn’t surprise me at all I don’t follow her so I wouldn’t bother using her made up names for puds

I do find Nigella to be a bit of a 'slattern' around the kitchen! She is constantly messing with her hair to put it back behind her ears.

There's also some degree of 'come hither' about her, as if she's already planning her own idea of 'dessert' . I bet she also 'plays footsie' under the table when nobody can see what she's up to

Anybody who wants to be taken seriously as a cook/chef needs to be hygienic in their 'kitchen practises.

She also has a habit of wearing her 'sitting-down-to-dine' clothes while prepping and cooking her meal. No need for that - overall or a pinny, PLEASE!

In some ways she reminds me of Alex Polizzi - who dresses 'sexy' while shouting at Hotel Owners. Talk about Miss Whiplash' .

Thanks for the Katherine Whitehorn piece. Loved her articles.

ENTERTAINING TO READ LOL