Richly hirsute

[neil]

on 24/1/05 5:26 pm, Arnold M. Zwicky at zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Richly hirsute
>
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> on Jan 24, 2005, at 8:49 AM, i wrote:
>
>> On Jan 24, 2005, at 2:36 AM, neil quoted:
>>
>>> "Now," she murmured, sliding her hand down his back to his hirsute
>>> ass.
>>> She pulled at the firm, muscles of his rear, feeling the coarse,
>>> affluent hair stiffen under her smooth palms.
>>>
>>> -Alex Ayers, 'The Soldier's Wife', Greenleaf Classics, San Diego,
>>> 1969?

>
> probably the result of cycling through (near-)synonyms, a common
> practice of inexperienced writers, of those who have been taught not to
> repeat words (but haven't been taught to maintain a consistent tone),
> and of writers in certain genres (for instance, porn/erotica).  in two
> sentences we have "ass" and "rear".  "bottom":, "posterior",
> "buttocks", "butt", etc.  might well be lurking in the neighborhood.
> "hirsute", meanwhile, looks like an elegant substitute for "hairy",
> which in this context would a bit too vividly physical; "hairy ass"
> would be right out, though "hirsute posterior" might have worked.
>
> (eventually i'll report on some discussion from soc.motss a while back
> on "cock" vs. "dick"; a number of americans reported that "cock" seemed
> more sexual to them than "dick".)

'Dick' doesn't even get a mention in 'The Anonymous Pornographic Genre:
Language, Sequences, Plots, Publishing and Pressures', Other Scholars, New
York,  Number 1, April 1973 - though the writers do observe that: "Prick is
obsolete because of its popular usage denoting stupidity, foolishness."


I take it that the unfamiliar word below is another porn-writer's attempt at
erudition. Not in my 2-vol Shorter Oxford, but I presume it means
'sheep's-eyes'.

'With a supreme effort she managed to shift her gaze from Dick's arm [under
Rene's skirt]; as she looked at Rene's face and saw the agnuopic stare of
those green eyes and the wet, parted lips, she received confirmation of the
woman's enjoyment.'
- Marty Machlia, 'Electric Swap', Greenleaf Classics, San Diego, 1970, 129