Antedating of "Oral Sex"

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 14, 2013, at 6:20 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 6:19 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> <-linctus> (i.e. licked)
>
>
> That requires the assumption that _linctus_ is necessarily the
> 2nd-Declension Perfect Passive Participle. I’ve always assumed that
> _linctus_ “licking” was simply a 4th-Declension noun, like _apparatus_,
> which is not the PPP of _apparare_, though it looks like it. That’s why the
> traditional plural in English is _apparatus_ and not _apparati_. Hence, the
> usually-though-not-necessarily-masculine _-us_ ending of that declension is
> perfectly scrutable. The “dirty” part of the word is _cunni-_, in any case.
> So, _cunni linctus_ “licking of [the] cunt” is hardly a euphemism.
>
Ah, but the use of Latin borrowings (cunnilin{g/ct}us vs. cunt-licking, fellatio vs. cock-sucking; defecation; etc.) is methodological or functional euphemism per se, no?

LH

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