dirty words in dictionaries

[Fred Shapiro]

On Thu, 3 Jun 2004, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> Yes. I'd like to see how it defines "irrumare", or any of its
> relatives (irrumatio, irrumator). This word, which means 'to
>
> P.S. "futuere" might be another one worth checking, of course.

Since I am preventing Larry Horn from checking by holding on to Yale's
copy, I guess I'm obligated to look.  Neither of these two terms is
included in the Wessely dictionary, unfortunately.  The appearance of
"cunt" may be an isolated instance of taboo English vocabulary creeping
in.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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