[marsh2]

As I understand it, when the Normans (French) conquered England, Anglo Saxon words were relegated to the vulgar. Ergo it is ok to use the word "intercourse" but not to use the "F word." Same for many other bodily and social functions.

When one mulls that over, it makes it more uncomfortable to accept some of the divisions between "proper" and not.

[Cicero]

Another interesting difference between Anglo-Saxon and Norman French is that the names for animals are mostly Anglo-Saxon, from the workers who raised them, but the names for the meat made from those animals are French, from the lords who ate them.

Cow/beef; Pig/pork; Sheep/mutton; and so on.