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Originally Posted by Celuien
I'm wondering about the original connotation of the word (which , of course, I can't personally attest to, not having been around in the 1300s  ).
Connections to being fickle aren't quite complimentary, and I just have to wonder if the connotation of the word was ever particularly good, especially considering the meaning of loose morals that it took on between 1290 and 1362 - not a particularly long period of time. |
That's the trouble with any comparison to real life usages. What we discover from our history is that attitudes were by and large uglier than we find in LotR amongst the Free Peoples. The etymology below shows the medieval tendency to view women as the root of evil, as they are all descendants of Eve.
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fickle
O.E. ficol "deceitful," related to befician "deceive," and to facen "deceit, treachery." Common Gmc. (cf. O.S. fekan, O.H.G. feihhan "deceit, fraud, treachery"), from PIE *peig- "evil-minded, treacherous, hostile" (cf. L. piget "it irks, troubles, displeases," piger "reluctant, lazy"). Sense of "changeable" is first recorded c.1275.
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Interesting how you can see the word "fake" in there.
A fun little discussion, but also a rabbit trail, I suppose. Please understand the use of 'wench' in the EMH as a professional title equivalent to 'waitress', for that's what's actually being talked about; as any of you will know, all my posts speak of young women as 'lasses' or 'ladies'. I'm NOT going to allow the term "waitress" to show up as a designation for the role, as that would be an anachronism! Blah.