OED news

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>"Quim" is obsolete; I'd bet not one American in a thousand knows it.
>(Obviously the logophilous readership of ADS-L is not a
>representative sample.)

Probably more than 1/1000. But concentrated among dinosaurs (of age 40+)
and book-readers, I guess, and who cares about these marginal groups in
this post-literate age? Perhaps more importantly, I guess in most places
this term is/was some way down the list of the dozens (hundreds?) of
commonly used synonyms: if they all were avoided, one could hardly speak at
all.

Apparently "KWIM-FM" exists (in Arizona).

Still, "quim" may be current among the young folks somewhere FAIK, and
surely it's a candidate for a blooming or comeback via some popular movie
or whatever, as with "shag" recently.

What about the non-US "wank"? Has this penetrated the US popular
consciousness yet? I don't see any "WANK-AM" or "-FM" at a glance, except
as a joke.

-- Doug Wilson