Bugger's grips

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

My understanding of BUGGERY is that it refers primarily to anal intercourse
(though it is sometimes extended to sex between male humans and other
animals). It seems to me that the "bugger's grips" would be an odd place for
a bugger to hang onto while performing that particular sex act! Or is the
reference to something that the buggee holds onto whilst being buggered?

I guess that it is just another example of markedness theory at work to refer
to buggery as "an 'alternative sex act'," though one might well ask what the
unmarked case REALLY is, especially in early 21st century western society.


In a message dated 10/16/2000 9:09:41 AM, douglas at NB.NET writes:

<< The quaint expression 'bugger's grips' apparently means "long
side-whiskers" or "muttonchops" or "full sideburns" ... apparently regarded
as potential 'hand-stirrups' for use during buggery/sodomy (i.e., during an
'alternative sex act').

This charming nomenclature is employed -- apparently with a 'straight face'
-- by Simon Winchester in "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder,
Insanity, and the Making of the _Oxford English Dictionary_" (Harper,
1998): p. 177 in the paperback:

"... their beards -- in both cases white, long, and nicely swallow-tailed
-- with thick moustaches, sideburns, and ample buggers' grips." [describing
the similar whiskers of Drs. Minor and Murray]

Certainly any expression which appears in a (sort of) serious book about
the OED must be accessible by reference to the OED itself?

-- Doug Wilson >>