haurni
Literotica Guru
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- Feb 28, 2010
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45 minutes or so on Google indicates that it is an old English term.
The Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary says:
From the same source we see that scritta is related to scraette, an adulteress or harlot. I believe wǽpen-wífestre refers literally to a female (wif) warrior (as indicated here), though the Old English dictionary also translates that as 'hermaphrodite'. Considering the juxtaposition with the (possibly derogatory) sexual connotation of 'scritta', either of the terms could conceivably mean a gay man or intersex person or maybe even a butch lesbian or simply a woman adopting a non-traditional role. It's easy to see how all of those terms can get wrapped up in each other such that the original meaning is lost.
One writer on Old English has apparently considered the related word baedling to mean 'gay man', as noted here.
Another translation gives 'an effeminate man, hermaphrodite'.
However, another notes that "baedling [...] appears only four times in the extant literature. [...] The Dictionary of Old English defines it cautiously as '? effeminate man ? homosexual ?', although as we shall see this is perhaps not cautious enough. in both glosses, the word seems to have associations of effeminacy, and these associations are supplemented by the probably cognate noun baeddel 'hermaphrodite', which again appears only twice in a glossary." (from Clark, Between Medieval Men: Male Friendship and Desire in Early Medieval English Literature Clark goes on to say that it could refer to "neither man nor woman, but some indeterminate gender. In this context, it would chime well with baeddel 'hermaphrodite', and could perhaps represent another kind of indeterminacy analogous to that of eunuchs [...] though not including a physical lack of a penis".
So in the modern context it appears to be a reinterpretation of an old word of indeterminate meaning as something equally indeterminate but that is approximated by 'intersex' or 'transwoman'.
The Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary says:
bæddel
es; m. A hermaphrodite; hermaphroditus
Wǽpen-wífestre vel scritta vel bæddel hermaphroditus, Ælfc. Gl. 76; Som. 71, 125; Wrt. Voc. 45, 28. v. wǽpen-wífestre, scritta.
es; m. A hermaphrodite; hermaphroditus
Wǽpen-wífestre vel scritta vel bæddel hermaphroditus, Ælfc. Gl. 76; Som. 71, 125; Wrt. Voc. 45, 28. v. wǽpen-wífestre, scritta.
From the same source we see that scritta is related to scraette, an adulteress or harlot. I believe wǽpen-wífestre refers literally to a female (wif) warrior (as indicated here), though the Old English dictionary also translates that as 'hermaphrodite'. Considering the juxtaposition with the (possibly derogatory) sexual connotation of 'scritta', either of the terms could conceivably mean a gay man or intersex person or maybe even a butch lesbian or simply a woman adopting a non-traditional role. It's easy to see how all of those terms can get wrapped up in each other such that the original meaning is lost.
One writer on Old English has apparently considered the related word baedling to mean 'gay man', as noted here.
Another translation gives 'an effeminate man, hermaphrodite'.
However, another notes that "baedling [...] appears only four times in the extant literature. [...] The Dictionary of Old English defines it cautiously as '? effeminate man ? homosexual ?', although as we shall see this is perhaps not cautious enough. in both glosses, the word seems to have associations of effeminacy, and these associations are supplemented by the probably cognate noun baeddel 'hermaphrodite', which again appears only twice in a glossary." (from Clark, Between Medieval Men: Male Friendship and Desire in Early Medieval English Literature Clark goes on to say that it could refer to "neither man nor woman, but some indeterminate gender. In this context, it would chime well with baeddel 'hermaphrodite', and could perhaps represent another kind of indeterminacy analogous to that of eunuchs [...] though not including a physical lack of a penis".
So in the modern context it appears to be a reinterpretation of an old word of indeterminate meaning as something equally indeterminate but that is approximated by 'intersex' or 'transwoman'.
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