SPECIAL WORDS FOR SEX AND RELATIONSHIP 217 



accord with the exogamous period of the mother-age, 

 during which the conception of the father's sister would, 

 on our theory, begin to be developed. It would accord, 

 however, with basa having originally stood for a name 

 for some of the group women 1 in the endogamous 

 period. Without being able to explain the origin of 

 the word, we may remark that the folk-feeling with 

 regard to its weight is very different from the affection- 

 ate atmosphere which surrounds muhme, and approaches 

 in some respects that attached to gevatter and gevatterin. 

 Thus bdseln is to chatter, gossip in a bad sense. The 

 basen are, in popular opinion, wrinkled, ugly, aged 

 spinsters who sit, spin, and spread scandalous stories. 

 Above all, it is they who raise a * philisterhaftes 

 Zetergeschrei,' when any one does not do what is 

 exactly customary. Thus kaffeebase, klatschbase, 

 baserei, philisterbaserei are all names the reverse of 

 complimentary to the base, and not finding their 

 equivalents in any ideas associated with French tante or 

 English aunt. There is certainly nothing in the word 

 to give any weight to a patriarchal conception of the 

 primitive Aryan family. It would seem to represent 

 some class of women in the community, whose age and 

 position rendered them responsible for the maintenance 

 of social tradition and custom. 2 



In A.S. fafie,faftu 9 in O.F. fete, in L.G. vade,fede, 



1 For example, elder sisters or elder female cousins, whom there is some 

 evidence to show were first separated from sexual relations with their younger 

 kin. In many languages, for instance, there are different words for younger 

 and elder sisters, and the latter are treated with far greater respect. 



2 Perhaps Friesian bds, Dutch baas, Norse bas, English boss, master, overseer, 

 deserve to be considered in relation to base. 



