• Wxnzxn@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    6 months ago

    I mean - nowadays it sorta is, it’s been heavily relegated to sexually fetishised contexts.

    But the reason a “Dirndl” is called that is, because “Dirne” is a word that used to mean just “woman” but went through a linguistic evolution to mean “prostitute” quite a while ago. Off the top of my head, I don’t know of an example that happened similiarly in English, but I’d guess there’s bound to be something like that there, too

    • Malgas@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      6 months ago

      “Courtesan” is an example in English, originally meaning ‘noblewoman’.

      There’s also “minx”, which originally just meant ‘person’. (It’s a cousin of “mensch”.)