At its least offensive, it means "outlaw who should be killed on sight; deserving of no human decency; having no right to exist." The meaning of "outlaw" has been drastically shifted over the last few hundred years.
It was used to describe monsters, sexual deviants, evil sorcerers, and deformed people, on the theory that one's soul was visible in one's body.
As an insult, it's as strong, if not stronger, than the other n-words that might've been thrown around.
(On "draggle-tailed," I have no opinion; Elizabethan/Victorian insults are mostly opaque to me. But "nithing" is actively used in modern Pagan communities--to describe child molesters and rapists.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 05:37 pm (UTC)It was used to describe monsters, sexual deviants, evil sorcerers, and deformed people, on the theory that one's soul was visible in one's body.
As an insult, it's as strong, if not stronger, than the other n-words that might've been thrown around.
(On "draggle-tailed," I have no opinion; Elizabethan/Victorian insults are mostly opaque to me. But "nithing" is actively used in modern Pagan communities--to describe child molesters and rapists.)