"Fanny" in US English

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>.... I wonder how widely known the American interpretation was in England
>at that time.
>
>   I wonder too how frequent the sexual sense has been in Britain, esp.
> since ca1900.  OED's cites are from _The Pearl_ (1879),  a slang
> dictionary,  _Finnegans Wake_, and Erica Jong's 18th C. pastiche, _Fanny_.
>
>   My impression is that it has usually been a kind of coy euphemism,
> perhaps esp. among women, rather than a fully-sexualized term. But I
> could be wrong; my reading of relevant British (and Irish) sources has
> been comparatively limited.

What do the UK-an scholars say, I wonder?

One obvious speculation for the etymology of "fanny" = "backside" is "Aunt
Fanny" as euphemism for "ass": is this "Aunt Fanny" old enough? I think I
see an instance from 1934.

[Likewise, I think an obvious speculation for the comparable "can" =
"backside" would be euphemistic "ashcan" ("ashcan" = "buttocks" appears in
the Cassell slang dictionary).]

*Maybe* the two anatomical "fanny"s were unrelated etymologically.

-- Doug Wilson


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