articles on euphemisms for sex

[Wilson Gray]

You guys must be a little bit on the young side. Or perhaps you aren't
fortunate enough to have had a psychiatric social worker as a mother.
There is much knowledge to be gleaned from even the most casual perusal
of the library of such a person.

In the '40's, "frotteur" was the only term used for a male of this
persuasion in books easily available to the enquiring mind of your
humble correspondent. In like manner, "frotteuse" was the term applied
to a "common night walker" whose specialty was, well, the hand job.
Apparently, if memory serves, this erotic specialty was already a dying
art in its death throes, even in those days, in the United States, at
least. Probably as a consequence of the Yankee "can-do" attitude that
introduced the concept "do-it-yourself" to the world. These same books
used the terms "cunnilinctus" and "anilinctus" instead of "cunnilingus"
and "anilingus." They also introduced me to "irrumation" and related
terms, which are in the on-line OED, but are missing from the 1971
edition of the unabridged RHD, the most recent such hard-copy
dictionary to which I have easy access.

-Wilson Gray


On Jan 31, 2005, at 5:32 PM, Grant Barrett wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: articles on euphemisms for sex
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> On Jan 31, 2005, at 17:03, Susan Tamasi wrote:
>> Also, can anyone give me a definition of "frottist"?
>
> It's usually "frotteurist," less rarely "frotterist" or "frottist":
> someone who takes an erotic thrill from rubbing others in a sexual way,
> usually in public and usually unbeknownst to, or out of control of, the
> frottee. From the French verb "frotter," 'to rub or rub against," I
> believe.
>
> Google "frotteurist" for more than you ever wanted to know about it.
> The Wikipedia entry is decent:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frottage_%28sexology%29
>
> Grant Barrett
> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>