circle jerk

[Dave Wilton]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Douglas G. Wilson
> Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2004 9:02 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: circle jerk
>
>
> >HDAS has circle jerk as a mess since 1973.  I don't have anything
> >earlier, but it is fairly common in this sense.
>
> I think this is about like "cluster f*ck" (literally "orgy" I suppose),
> "goat f*ck", "pooch screw", etc.
>
> Instead of getting their job done, the participants are engaged in
> undisciplined, undignified, useless activity: e.g., metaphorically, group
> sex or sex with animals. That's how I picture it anyway. These all seem
> sort of military, I think.

But this is a slightly different sense than cited by Mr. Zwicky. His cites
used the term to mean a session of mutual admiration. Even the citations
relating to the mess in Iraq are in the context of neocons convincing each
other that their ideas were correct.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net
  http://www.wilton.net