Bitch

Bitch is a term for the female of a canine species in general. It is also frequently used as an offensive term for a woman, taken to mean that she is malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, or unpleasant. This second meaning has been in use since around 1400. When used to describe a male, it confers the meaning of "subordinate", especially to another male (as in prison). More recent variants of bitch are bitchy, ill-tempered (1925), and to bitch, to complain (1930).

Sometime during the late 1990s or early 2000s, the term "bitch" became more and more accepted and less offensive, and is now very rarely censored on television broadcasts or otherwise. Prior to the term's general acceptance, euphemism terms were often substituted, such as "gun" in the phrase "son of a gun". More generally the term has also acquired the meaning of something unpleasant or irksome, as in the expression "Life's a Bitch".