SIR – In a way, your correspondent Mr Lorriman makes my argument for me in that he and I both seem to agree that the meaning of words changes over time.
I have no doubt that in 1940s Manningham, sluts may well have been lazy, untidy women, but as I have said ad nauseum these days, the generally understood meaning is much less complimentary.
As to gay, all I can say is that when I worked in Birmingham in the 1960s, BSA Motor Cycles was still a going concern and with speed limits yet to be introduced on the open road, a popular song released in 1963 by Mike Sarne had the line, ‘a ton up wiv a bird up on me bike’.
As is well known, rain and motorbikes do not go together, so to protect the bird on the bike, BSA introduced a range of wet weather gear with the name GapPlas. I’m willing to bet if they tried to sell it today using the same name, they wouldn’t get a single order.
Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley
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