Home » Segments » Why Did “Piss” Become a Crass-Sounding Word?

Why Did “Piss” Become a Crass-Sounding Word?

The noun piss, meaning “urine” and the verb piss, “to urinate,” may sound more crass than pee. But it wasn’t always that way. In the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, piss appears in the book of Isaiah and pisseth appears in the book of Samuel. This usage is typical of a time when words involving bodily functions carried little or no stigma. As social classes began dividing, the word piss came to be considered vulgar. Less offensive synonyms include wee and micturate. This is part of a complete episode.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More from this show

Going on Buxtehude

Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...

Recent posts