Pink geography (was: hungarian and pink currency)

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:41 PM -0400 9/25/00, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>At 8:52 PM +0100 9/25/00, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>>>>BUM BAG, pg. 53, col. 3.  Americans call it "fanny pack."
>>>
>>>And the Brits are quite horrified/amused that the Americans call it that.
>>[Larry Horn wrote:]
>>Not to mention the fact that we (as a rule) don't know why Cleland
>>would have written his novel about "Fanny Hill" (either that, or we
>>think we know but we get the geography wrong).
>
>Compare "front bottom" or "front bum" (non-US euphemism) for the female
>genitals, in Thorne's slang dictionary for example.
>
>Spears' dictionary for example lists "fancy-bit" = "female genitals" (along
>with "fancy woman" = "prostitute"), from the 18th century, perhaps a
>precursor or cousin of "fanny" in the British sense?
>
Curiously, RHHDAS gives "fanny" in the 'vulva, vagina' sense as
"orig. unkn. but perh. cf. Fanny Hill (1748-49), erotic novel by John
Cleland".  In which case I was wrong about WHY Cleland named his
character and eponymous character "Fanny Hill", although the effect
was to provide a retroactive pun.

larry