What is the meaning of ''put paid to niceties like gender'' in this excerpt? According to one theory, when the next wave of invaders, the Scandinavians, arrived, the Anglo-Saxons strove to converse with them in a simple ‘creolised’ English which put paid to niceties like gender. This picture of stumbling inter-racial dialogue has obvious charms, but Burchfield firmly squashes it. How the Anglo-Saxons lost their grammar is just another secret hidden in the pre-Edisonian silence. Thank you :)