nookie

[Mark A. Mandel]

Summary: What's the distribution of semantic restrictions on "nookie"?

A woman on the lois-bujold discussion list posted the following paragraph
about characters in one of this author's books:

>>>>>
... Martya's comments in ACC about Kou just barely coping mentally with his
oldest daughter's old-fashioned, as far as he knows, engagement before
blowing up at the news of his youngest experiencing actual nookie.
<<<<<

I replied with interest at this use of a word which in my experience (male,
52, grew up NYC area) had only been used for sex from the male point of
view, by men or women. (As a possible example of use by a woman I offered
something like "Ah, you know him, all he cares about is nookie.")

Another female listmember wrote:

>>>>>
Denene Williams uses it in The Sistah's Rules, which I somehow ended up
reading
last week. She is definitely writing for other women.

It is not much used in my social circle, that I have heard, by men OR
women.

Mind you, we're not the most inhibited bunch. Usually we settle for "having
sex".

Or worse. :-)
<<<<<

And another woman replied:

>>>>>
Actually, I've seen/heard/used "nookie" to mean almost any form of sexual
activity-- from light necking to going all the way-- for either sex.
Just what degree of sexual activity is involved is deduced from the
context. (Or, it can be nicely non-specific if the intent is to speak to a
broad range of possibilities.)
<<<<<

So I'm wondering if this difference is generational, geographic, or what? I
haven't asked these informants for their characteristics in those respects,
though I see that one has a Ph.D. and another uses a Canadian ISP. I'm
bcc-ing them on this note.


-- Mark A. Mandel