STEW

matthew.malthouse · 22 Aug 2003, 07:14 · from urth-v0308.mbox · original

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From: matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk
Subject: Re: (urth) STEW
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 08:14:10 +0100
Message-ID: <urth-v0308-3986 at digest.urth.net>
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On 21/08/2003 17:23:16 Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:

>I will note, however, that the word "stew" is used in URTH (ch. 30,
>"Ceryx") as the common term for a public bath house.

=46rom Middle English, stewen; to bathe in a steam bath.  Hence informal=20
modern usage; to suffer with oppressive heat.  Thence also possibly to=20
worry, be agitated.

By Early Modern English (c1400) stew as in bath-house had become=20
synonymous with brothel, especially in the plural.  Also by derivation a=20
prostitutue.  Even when not directly meant the term suggested squalour,=20
poverty and crime as in London's c16 theatres being in the stews of=20
Southwark and Shorditch.

Matthew

--=20

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