On ill-sorts
Tiffany Jenkins (Perspective, 21 June) laments the way in which words which were totally innocent come to be regarded as offensive.
’Twas ever thus. In Shakespeare’s Henry IV a scurvy soldier has been called “captain” and Doll Tearsheet exclaims: “A captain! God’s light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word ‘occupy’; which was an excellent good word before it was ill-sorted.”
S Beck, Edinburgh