Why don't these words fit the pattern of thirteen through nineteen? [Answer to 1] A remarkably thorough answer to (1) appears at Why do eleven and twelve get unique words and not end in "-teen"? .
5 That's a very good question. It certainly is offensive here in the US, and I'm not sure why it's considered so much worse than other "Anglo-Saxon" words. I've used all of the other ones on occasion. But in 52 years, I've used "cunt" anatomically only a handful of times, and I can't recall ever using it as a slang reference for a woman.
Why do people use the latter terminology? For one thing, I find it confusing. It doesn't help that BCE is similar to BC. But moreover, there is only one letter of difference between the two terms, whereas with BC and AD, the terms are clearly different and I find it easier to distinguish! Were BCE/CE established earlier than BC/AD?
This Wikipedia article gives this explanation for the origin of the word gee-gee: The Chester Racecourse site was home to the famous and bloody Goteddsday football match. The game was very violent and, in 1533, banned by the city, to be replaced in 1539 by horse racing. The first recorded race was held on February 9, 1539 with the consent of the Mayor Henry Gee, whose name led to the use of ...
The source of Stephen is the Greek name Stephanos. This name was borrowed into English long enough ago that the intervocalic [f] sound was voiced to become [v]. This is a regular sound change that was also responsible for some other f~v alternations in English, such as loaf~loaves. However, in the name Stephen the spelling "ph" remained (or has been restored) due to the influence of the Greek ...
