Quim

[Laurence Horn]

>Here's a fairly novel use of  "quim" 'girl' right out in the open with
>no sexual or pejorative connotations. I suppose either a) there were no
>such connotations at that time and place, b) the author of the article
>didn't pick them up, or, c) as Jon Lighter has suggested off-list, a
>writer pulled one over on a square editor.
>
>1911 Indianpolis Star (Aug. 2) "Chorus Girls Arrive: Bring 'Newest
>Talk'" p. 5: Stage hands, who were anxious to learn the prevailing
>words of slang of the season, stood with their jaws agape during the
>afternoon when the chorus girls twisted the English language into hard
>knots for their benefit. [...]
>
>"We are not going to be chorus girls, dears, warblers, chickens, quails
>or squabs any longer. The correct dope this year is--well, don't tell
>before the season has opened, but it's going to be quims."
>
>"Quims, is it?" cried another chorus girl.
>
>...
>
>OED online has "quim" 'girl' from 1935, unpublished HDAS files have it
>from 1909, a different cite than Partridge's of the same date in
>"Dictionary of the Underworld" under "cop a quim." OED online has
>"quim" 'vagina' to c1735.
>
And Farmer & Henley (Vol. V, 1896) have it (as not only "quim" but
"queme", "quimsby", "quimbox", or "quin") with the following gloss:

(venery) The female pudendum; see Monosyllable.

Seems like taboo avoidance would have kicked in by 1911, but we are
talking Indianapolis...

larry