The word bitch conjures many images, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean "a female canine," bitch didn't refer to women at all--it originated as a gender-neutral word for "genitalia." A perfectly innocuous word devolving into an insult directed at females is the case for tons more terms, including hussy, which simply meant "housewife"; and slut, which meant "an untidy person" and was also used to describe men. These are just a few of history's many English slurs hurled at women.