What do you think ‘slut’ meant?

grannyactivist

I called my mother a slut once, when I was thirteen. She slapped my face so hard that my ears rang for a week!

In fairness to my younger self I had no idea of the connotation relating to morals, I’d read the word in a book and it referred to a selfish woman who did no housework. With hindsight my mother’s life at the time was such that she had cause to think I meant the latter.

I did a similar thing @grannyactivist. Only I asked my mum why she was all tarted up? I honestly thought it just meant she had some make up on. Lol.

I loved Katherine Whitehorn's articles; my guiding principle when a young mother was her advice to 'think what the Coroner might say'.

what about eton mess.
i'd never heard of it til i saw it in the works canteen once.
thought it sounded horrible; stupid name, off-putting.

The reason it's called Eton Mess, is because it's traditionally served at Eton College's annual cricket game against the pupils of Harrow School

Easy peasy, delicious but so easy for some pubs etc to get wrong.

I thought that the origins of Eton Mess were that the school’s Cook made a sort of pavlova type thing; dropped it; and then scooped up all the ingredients and put them into bowls willy-nilly (now there’s a name for a desert!)

Mess also refers to people living and eating together. As an army brat I grew up in communities with an Officer's Mess, Srgeant's Mess and others.

As the 'slut' thread shows, there are very few words in the Englsih language with only one clear meaning. Most have two or more clear and unrelated meanings.

I was so angry about the state of my teenage daughter's bedroom that I told her she was "such a slut" - meaning dirty and untidy. Of course she interpreted this as being rather more derogatory and was really upset.
I don't have many regrets in life but this is one of them. I do wish I had chosen my words more carefully rather than upsetting her so badly.

I was christened 'Slutty' because I am incurably, obsessively and irritatingly houseproud.
It's the same principle as Little John being so named because he was very big!

I think they are called slutty because they are made with filthy rich gooey chocolate.

Here it has only one meaning, a derogatory term for a promiscuous woman.

If Nigella was changing the name of a dessert, it was probably due to pressure from publishers.

i think nowadays, it's imposs to think of slut as anything other than akin to tart, but worse.

Slut in Swedish (pronounced sloot) means finished. Maybe she means that when you’ve eaten it the meal is finished ?