"oral sex" among the Victorians + postil(l)ion

[neil]

on 1/11/06 10:37 AM, Chris Waigl at cwaigl at FREE.FR wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Chris Waigl <cwaigl at FREE.FR>
> Organization: sadly lacking
> Subject:      Re: "oral sex" among the Victorians + postil(l)ion
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> On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:09:46 +0000, neil typed:
>
>> As soon as I posted, I realized I'd hit the 'b' instead of 'the 'n',
>> resulting in the acte veberien' instead of 'acte venerien'.
>>
>> Didn't think it warranted another post to correct what I assumed
>> would be seen as an obvious typo!
>
> I actually spent ten minutes with the dictionaries over the "acte
> vébérien" ("he can't have meant vénérien, doesn't that refer only to
> infections?").
>
> Chris Waigl
> who didn't dare to ask

The first definition in my SOED for 'venereal' gives:

'Of or pertaining to, associated or connected with sexual desire or
intercourse.'

Infection only makes its appearance at definition 2. Possibly also the case
in French dictionaries!

--Neil Crawford