The Etymology of the word 'Minx'

A photograph of  what had the original definition of a 'minx'

As time goes on and life develops along with things like technology and different ways of living, words develop too.

Etymology is the study of how certain word's meanings change over time. 

In the 1540's, a 'minx' was the noun for a little pet dog. As time has changed, so has the word 'minx'. The noun is now quite a derogatory term which could be used to describe a flirtatious, seductive woman or man (more commonly a woman). The development of the word stemmed from the German word 'minsk' which means an impudent man/woman. It also relates to the German word 'mensch' which is also used in a derogatory way and has synonyms of words such as 'slut'. 

Nowadays, the word 'minx' is generally used to describe a 'cheeky' or 'mischievous' person. 

It can also mean someone who is flirtatious, alluring, seductive and sexy. "She's such a saucy little minx."

Some words which are connotations of the word 'Minx' include:

- Sexy

- Slut

- Cheeky

- Whore

- Flirt

- Tart

- Tease

- Floozy

- Slag

Each of these words are fairly similar, yet can all be meant in a very different way. Some of these nouns are extremely offensive, whereas others are quite harmless and could even be seen by some people as a compliment. For instance, the words 'slut', 'whore', 'tart' and 'slag' are all offensive and derogatory ways of describing a woman. Each of these words have very similar definitions, generally meaning a woman who has sexual relations with a lot of men. 

If you look up these words on Urban Dictionary, these are some of the definitions that come up;

Slut - A derogatory term referring to a sexually promiscuous person, usually a female. It is one who engages in sexual activity with many people. Can also be used to refer to a woman who is wearing 'skimpy' or tasteless clothing. "That girl is such a slut, she has slept with every man in this room."

Whore - A woman who is paid for sexual services. "I hate her she is such a whore!"

Tart - A nubile young temptress, who dresses teasingly or provocatively. "The tarts usually hang around this street."

Slag - An individual who cares not for relationships beyond the realm of the sexual aspect, these people sleep with many partners not caring about anything except for the sexual side of it. "So your wife's been a nasty slag all along?"

Whereas words like 'sexy' and 'cheeky' are not so offensive, they are much more light and don't have such a harsh meaning. 

'Minx' is one of the less offensive out of the list. Generally used to mean cheeky and flirtatious, but it can be linked with other more derogatory terms which can lead people to believe that if someone is labelled as a 'minx' they are also worthy of being called a 'slag' and a 'slut' etc. 

So nowadays, the word 'minx' would rarely be used to describe some kind of pet animal. It is instead used as a term which describes woman who act in a certain flirtatious, seductive manner.

Gender theorists relating to my Language Investigation

ROBIN LAKOFF 1975

• Empty adjectives: 'sexy', 'amazing', 'marvelous', 'gorgeous' etc. As the target audience for these advertisements is women, the use of empty adjectives is relevant as, according to Lakoff, womnen frequently use empty adjectives in their speech. So women are likely to be attracted to these adverts as they are using their type of language so will relate to the adverts.

• Question intonation in a declarative: 'How do you look in your bathing suit? Skinny?' Women often do this, and one of the advertisements I am focusing on also does this too. This could also be used in order to give the females something to relate to - as it is the type of speech that they are used to it may feel more friendly and make them feel more comfortable as they may feel like it is similar to when they are having a conversation with one of their friends.
• 
  

Advice Speech style model

Emma Watson: Gender equality is your issue too

Date : 20 September 2014

Speech by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014

[Check against delivery.]

Today we are launching a campaign called “HeForShe.”

I am reaching out to you because I need your help. We want to end gender inequality—and to do that we need everyone to be involved.

This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. And we don’t just want to talk about it, but make sure it is tangible.

I was appointed six months ago and the more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is: “The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”

I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called “bossy,” because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not.

When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.

When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscly.”

When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.

Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?

I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.

No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.

These rights I consider to be human rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. And we need more of those.

And if you still hate the word—it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been.

In 1995, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly many of the things she wanted to change are still a reality today.

But what stood out for me the most was that only 30 per cent of her audience were male. How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?

Men—I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.

Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother’s.

I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less “macho”—in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49 years of age; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality either.  

We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence.

If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled.

Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong… It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.

If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are—we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom. 

I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too—reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN. It’s a good question and trust me, I have been asking myself the same thing. I don’t know if I am qualified to be here. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better.

And having seen what I’ve seen—and given the chance—I feel it is my duty to say something. English Statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.”

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I’ve told myself firmly—if not me, who, if not now, when. If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you I hope those words might be helpful.

Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able to receive a secondary education.

If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier.

And for this I applaud you.

We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up, to be the "he" for "she". And to ask yourself if not me, who? If not now, when?

Thank you.

 

Torn In Two

Torn In Two

Wide glassy green eyes the colour of freshly cut grass on a hot summer’s day. His smooth, flawless, olive coloured skin is dripping with expensive aftershave and he has a wide smile, which shows off    his perfect white teeth, constantly painted across his face.

He pushes back his sleek, silky, brown hair as he is swanning around the crowded night club handing out shot glasses to all the love-struck women. Tight denim jeans are wrapped around his calves and his almost sprayed on white t-shirt is clinging onto his chest and biceps. His designer clothing is hugging his well-earned, muscular physique whilst his face still has that forced gigantic grin upon it.

He is thinking about his Mother’s tragic death as he is serving drinks. His vision’s all of a sudden becoming blurred by his uncontainable tears. He places his tray of shot glasses onto the varnished table beside him. Gently grabbing his throat, he slowly, but extremely tightly, closes his eyes to create a barrier in front of the stream of tears which is desperately trying to force its way out. He swallows, takes a deep breath and re-opens his now dry eyes before beginning to carry on roaming around the club acting like he doesn’t care about anyone or anything.

His mother suffered for a year and a half with throat and mouth cancer. He was 14 years old. His heart was torn in two.Hhhhhhsjh For that last year and a half of her life it was hard for him. He had to watch the woman who meant the most to him in his life turn to dust. A cough is all it started off with, and then the lump in her throat appeared - which just never left. Gradually, she became frailer and frailer, to the point where she could hardly even get a whisper out. Where she had lost so much weight; her skin looked like a wet cloth which was just sagging off of her.

5^th October 2008 was the day she breathed her last breath. He was there, lying beside her on the hospital bed, holding onto her cold and weak hands. Her last words he always remembers. That one phrase, always repeats in his head over and over again. She had thanked him many times; she thanked him for being there, supporting and looking after her throughout the dreadful 18 months. She slowly opened up her mouth, only slightly, just so there was a tiny gap to release whatever sound she could force out. “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, only felt with the heart…” Her eye lids slowly met.

It’s Saturday night. Meaning it’s the fourth night in a row which he has been working. Tonight seems the same as every other night, like the same repetitive movie playing over and over again; every night he flirts with a few lucky women then walks back through town to the university campus and collapses straight into bed as if he has been deprived of sleep for weeks.

A petite, pretty looking young woman taps him on the back (she isn’t tall enough to tap him on the shoulder). “Well hello, what can I do for you?” he asks with a cheeky look in his eyes. They get talking. He cannot think about work anymore, he is too distracted by this beautiful blonde young woman.

She comes across as very shy and innocent, yet very sweet and caring. Her eyes become a tad squinty and the dimples in her cheeks appear. Covering her mouth with her French-manicured hands, she lets out a girly giggle.

Her short, tight, rose coloured dress is tantalizing him. “I’ve lost my friends, do you know where they might be?” she asks him with a grin on her face. He can tell she doesn’t really care about finding her friends. He gazes into her dark chocolate eyes. He gently gets a hold of her dyed blonde hair and pushes it out of her face. He puts his lips next to her ear “I’ll help you find them later, keep me company for a bit first.” he whispers.

The pair stand staring at each other. His beautiful smile, still stuck on his face, looks less forced now. She is clenching her lips together trying not to show her smile, but you can tell by the way her cheek bones have jumped up that she is filled with happiness and excitement.

Their compatible personalities enable them to get on as if they’ve known each other for 5 years, rather than only 5 minutes.

They are together for the rest of the night. Invisible hand cuffs locking them together.

Standing on her toes to make herself tall enough, she leans over to him and gently whispers in his ear “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, only felt with the heart…”

His face is screwed up like he has just eaten a sour sweet. Disgust covers his perfect face and his hate-filled eyes still will not leave the girl, but the wide glassy green eyes have now changed to narrow dark slits. Fear is dragging her eye lids apart wider and wider. Like someone is opening the curtains first thing in the morning. She begins to back away, tripping over another woman’s foot as she rapidly walks. Silence grips the whole club. He kneels to the ground and raises his fist above her.

He slowly drops his arm to the ground and just freezes.

The girl drags herself up off the ground and runs without looking back once. All you can hear is her heels drumming on the ground as she runs, and her gasping for air in a panic.

Noise levels rise again. Everyone starts leaving the club.

He is still frozen.

Reaching his trembling hands deep into the pocket of his tight jeans, he slowly pulls out what looks like an old crumpled but piece of scrap paper. He unfolds it and brings it up towards his puckered lips. Closing his eyes, he slowly kisses the photograph. “I love you Mum.” he whispers to himself. He rapidly rips it in two and drops it to the ground.

Just like his heart got torn in two when his mother left him.

 

Dos and Don'ts of St Brendan's

The DOs and DON’Ts of St Brendan’s

Hello year 11, you may recognise me as I was a student here last year. I know that you are all at that stage where you are looking around colleges and sixth forms and trying to decide where you think will be the best place for you to further your education for the next 2 years. As I have been studying at St Brendan’s for nearly a year now, I know pretty well what you should and shouldn’t do…

Firstly, think about this; person A is a boy who is very sporty, very good at maths and enjoys business studies. Whereas his best friend, person B, also enjoys sport, but likes English rather than maths and is good at sciences. Person B has chosen to take English, physics and chemistry and is just going to do sport as an enrichment activity. Person A cannot decide whether to choose his subjects based on what he enjoys and is good at, or choose the same subjects as what his friend is doing. What do you think? Raise your hand if you think person A would do better choosing what he enjoys… now raise your hand if you think that he’ll do better if he chooses subjects which his friend is doing. Exactly, it’s obvious that person A will benefit a lot more if he chooses subjects that he is actually good at rather than just copying his friend. You shouldn’t just choose your subjects based on what your best friend’s doing. At college you want to make all of the new friends you can. So try to be a bit independent in choosing your subjects, rather than just deciding based on what your friends are doing. Think about it like this… Even if you do take subjects which your friends are doing, just take into consideration the fact that you probably won’t end up in the same classes as them anyway. So just try to focus on what subjects you like and what subjects you are good at. St Brendan’s have a range of 73 different courses on offer, considering you can only choose to take 3 or 4 that could be a hard decision, couldn’t it? So make your decision wisely, you don’t want to end up regretting it a few months down the line.

Friends. Everyone wants to make friends and it’s really not hard. As long as you’re willing to talk to new people, you’ll easily find new people who you get on well with. You should make effort to be confident and outgoing. If you’re naturally a shy person, try your best to take yourself out of your comfort zone and just put yourself out there! How are you going to make any new friends if you aren’t willing to converse with any new people? It’ll be a struggle.

Now, I know it’s tempting having a McDonald’s literally opposite the college… but you’re going to have to be strong! It won’t get you very far if you’re eating in McDonald’s every day. (Literally, you’ll get so fat you won’t be able to move very far). Also, it’ll just simply cost you a lot of money to be buying a meal every day, if you do choose to get McDonald’s every day, you’ll get sick of it soon anyway. Just the thought of it will make you queasy once you’ve had it every day for a month! You could just bring in a sandwich or even save some of the leftovers from last night’s dinner and bring them in for your lunch.

You will soon realise the difference between GCSEs and A Levels. No matter how hard you may think GCSEs are at the minute, trust me, you’ll find A Levels a significant amount harder. But you will be fine, as long as you put the work in. So take advantage of your free periods! I would advise you against spending all your free time sitting around with your friends, instead just go to the library or somewhere where you can get some homework/extra work done. I bet I can guess what you’re all thinking… “How boring!” Right? But if you think about it, that way you’ll have a lot more free time at home to do what you want because you won’t have to do your homework as you’ll have already done it in college!

One of the main things I was worried about before starting college was what clothes I’d wear every day. It’s a daunting thing going from wearing a strict school uniform, to being able to wear your own clothes every day. I wanted to fit in, but didn’t want to be wearing exactly the same as everyone else. And I wanted to look good, but not be too overdressed… or underdressed for that matter. So I thought it was important to go on a shopping spree; I went out and bought lots of new outfits. But it did cost me a lot of money (well, it cost my Mum a lot of money!) Now I’ve realised, nobody really cares what you’re wearing. Everyone is in the same situation so what clothes you wear really isn’t as big a deal as I thought it was. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that nobody will pay any attention to what you’re wearing. You wouldn’t just want to turn up in your pyjamas! But it’s just nowhere near as important as you may think. So don’t do what I did and go out and spend a ridiculous amount of your parent’s money unnecessarily, yes you may want to buy a few essentials but other than that just wear what you feel comfortable in.

If you’re working already or planning on getting a job, just be careful to know what your priorities should be. I understand you may want to work as many hours as you can in order to make as much money as possible, but do try to keep into consideration that college work, for the moment, should be one of your main priorities. Obviously I’m not saying you should put your A-Levels before everything else, I know you all have your own lives, but don’t put everything else before your A-Levels either. If you can’t handle the college work amount due to the fact that you cannot find the time as you’re working the majority of the time – ask for fewer hours! Or you could even quit the job and find one that fits in better with college.

One mistake I am going to admit to making is wasting my free periods. A massive change, which I definitely noticed when I came from secondary school to college, is the freedom. At school, you have people checking up on you 24/7. At the time I found it annoying, it is impossible to get away with missing any of your lessons. But now I’ve realised how much the nagging of the teachers repeatedly saying ‘get to your lesson’ benefited me. Because at college, although you do have to go to all of your lessons, you don’t have anyone nagging you if you’re just hanging around the corridor or just sat in the café. I bet you’re all thinking that sounds great aren’t you? But it really isn’t. Everyone has a number of free periods timetabled around their subjects that they take, what I really would advise you to do is use that time wisely. Do not just hang about the corridor purely because you can, don’t just sit around and chat, make the most of it. It may sound boring, but the best thing to do in your free periods would be to just go to the library and get some work done. At least then you won’t have much work to do at home, as you’d have already done it in your frees, so you’ll have a lot more free time outside of college to do what you like.

College days can be very long. For me, they can be up to almost 12 hours. If I have a full day I have to get up at 6am to leave the house at 7.10, get to the bus stop for 7.20, get on the bus around 7.22, get off in town at about 8 and walk to the bus station, get on the second bus which goes from town to college at about 8.05 and be in college ready to start my lesson at 8.55. Then, when college finally ends at 4, I have to do the exact same in reverse. Though, this can take even longer as everyone from college is trying to get on the bus at 4 so sometimes you have to wait for a few full buses to drive past before you can actually get on. So I usually get on the bus about 4.30, get to town just after 5 then have to get on the bus to go home which I get off by my house, finally I have to walk home from the bus stop and I arrive home just after 6pm. So as you can tell, college days can be extremely long and tiring. So it really does pay off to get a good night’s sleep! I doubt many of you could do 5 12 hour days a week with minimal sleep. I know it sounds like I am just going on about getting enough sleep, as if you haven’t heard it enough, but you really should try to get a decent amount of sleep each night before college. Of course I am not saying you have to be in bed by 8pm every night, but just try not to stay up until the early hours of every morning just led in bed on your phone – you’ll regret it in the morning! (Trust me, I’ve been there).

Please feel free to ask me now if any of you have any questions which you’d like me to answer.

Thank you.