I wrote that our ancestors had a great way with words when it came to insults.
My own childhood was filled with pillocks and barnpots but there were glorious ones from the time of Shakespeare and Chaucer: sheep-biting knave, pottle-deep baggage, scroyle and gundygut.
Allen Jenkinson commented: “The worst insult that my mother could level at anyone, was to call them … common!”
That’s the cutting edge of social comment, Allen.
And ancient, too, if you complete the phrase as in: common as muck.
Muck comes from the Middle English word muk, which is likely to be derived from the Old Norse word myki meaning dung.
Those Vikings didn’t just come to raid and pillage, they settled all over the North of England and gave us insults, too.
