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Biography of a Word Project - "Bitch"


Timeline:
c1000 - (n.) word was first used as "a female dog"
1400 - (n.) Applied opprobriously to a woman; strictly, a lewd or sensual woman. Not now in decent use; but formerly common in literature.
1500 - (n.) Applied to a man but less opprobriously than to women (more lighthearted)
1555 - (n.) "female of the fox, wolf, and occasionally of other beasts; usually in combination with the name of the species"
1645 - (v.) word transfers meaning from noun to verb (Charles Cotton: "thou art now going a bitching")
1747 - (n.) a term used in mining for a tool used to draw up the rods
1777 - (v.) To hang back or idle behind ("Norton bitched a little at last" Edmund Burke "The Correspondence of Edmund Burke")
1823 - (v.) to spoil, bungle, or ruin  
1904 - (n.) A primitive for of lighting - old fat candle (ie: "The Black Flame Candle" in Hocus Pocus)
1930 - (v.) to grumble or complain (accepted into American English terminology in 1930 but not published in this context until Budd Schulberg's 1941 novel What Makes Sammy Run?)
1934 - (v.) to be spiteful, malicious, deceptive

Compounds:
1330 - Bitch-Son - (n.) from Arthur & Merlin meaning, along the lines of the modern, son of a bitch ("Biche sone! thou drawest amis.")
1796 - Bitch-fou - (n.) from Robert Burns meaning drunk and sick as a bitch; beastly drunk; wasted ("I've been..bitch fou 'mang godly priests.")
bitch
         So, as many American's do, I took my day off of school and work to a: honor Dr. Martain Luther King and instagram a beautiful quote of his and b: to lounge around my house watching reality tv shows and wondering why I don't star in one yet. 
          Between my channel surfing, I stumbled upon the OWN network where I thought Opera would grant me the serenity to binge watch the Shania Twain reality show, Why Not with Shania Twain. In the series, Shania preps for her, then, upcoming engagement at Caesar's Palace in Vegas and tries to find her voice. According to the series, she's lost her voice and been unable to sing for unknown reasons so she embarks on a journey to find her voice, her confidence, and her self. 

           In this episode, particularly around the 20 minute mark, Shania goes to a series of five vocal doctors and gets a better look at her windpipe and vocal cords. Ultimately she is diagnosed with dysphonia which is where the muscles around the throat apply pressure to the vocal box causing discomforting pressure and the inability to produce vocal sounds - something not desired by singers to say the least. I found it incredibly fascinating, as did Shania - hey girl!, that one set of vocal chords could and would require so many specialists. When you really think about the human body and the complexities within it I suppose it makes sense but something so minute and seemingly simple could require so many different doctors is astonishing. 
          So how does this all tie into linguistics? I guess the point I'm trying to make relates back to the first day of my linguistics class where my teacher, Dr. Walts, forced encouraged the class to try to make as many sounds as we could using only certain parts of our mouths, throat, and lungs. It was really interesting to break-down the way words are said and used in the English language and how much effort goes into the pronunciation of words. For Shania, the show allowed me to get a better look at the vocal chords and the system around them and how they move to make sounds. It's really interesting to see her try to sing and the vocal cords adjust to make the noises and notes. 
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