Choad/Chode--origin?

[Baker, John]

        Ah, those high-minded hippies of the 1960s, looking to the East for its mystical insights while studiously avoiding any thought of sex.

        Actually, the perceived Eastern focus on sex was a big part of its appeal in the 1960s.  Compare "lingam" and "yoni," which had previously been used in English but were to some extent re-popularized around this time.  It's interesting that the meaning of "choad" shifted, but that may mean only that the Western youth culture was as intellectual as they thought they were.

        The Jargon File suggests, http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/c/choad.html, that "choad" was inherited through 1960s underground comics.  I can confirm that the underground comic artist Robert Crumb, and perhaps others, did use the term.  The underground comics had precisely the sort of uninformed interest in Eastern sex that could lead to an erroneous appropriation of the word.

        Of course, this means only that the derivation is plausible, and nothing more.  I don't have any copies of Zap Comix handy, but I don't think Crumb ever claimed an Eastern or other particular derivation for "choad."

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Jesse Sheidlower [mailto:jester at PANIX.COM]
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 10:22 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Choad/Chode--origin?


Granted, I wasn't very active during the '60s, but my
impression is that, as in the examples you give above,
Western youth culture was interested more in intellectual
branches of Eastern cultures than in obscene words for
sex.

Also, with this deep interest in various aspects of
Indian culture, are there any _other_ slang terms to
come from there?

Jesse Sheidlower
OED