Ram-beggur

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:30 PM -0400 6/22/06, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 6/22/2006 05:30 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>Did "ram" mean, well, you know, at the time ?  A citation would be nice.
>
>I've just come from Richard A. Spears's "Slang and Euphemism (Second
>Abridged Edition, Signet, 1991, where I was looking for "piss-house"
>et al.  (Not found there or in Rawson).  I took only brief notes on
>"ram".  Spears claims "ram" meant "an act of copulation" from the
>1600s; "to copulate with a female" from the 1800s or earlier; "to
>perform pederasty" (I didn't note from when).  I think he also has
>the sense "erect penis" (again I didn't note the date).  Spears (or
>at least this abridged edition) does not have any quotations.
>
>Spears does not have "ram-beggur/bugger/beggar".
>
>>   Even if it did - and I'm not ruling that out - it seems unlikely
>>to me that it was the sort of verb that would ordinarily be applied
>>to females.  The same, I hate to say, goes for "bugger," though the
>>legal usage of the time may prove me wrong.
>
>Spears seems to agree.  His senses of "ram" nearly all require the
"ramming" to be male.

Farmer & Henley also have "ram" as
"(venery) An act of coition: hence, as a verb, to possess a woman;
cf. RAMROD ['the penis; see PRICK']"

Of course, it's not so much the sex of the possessum that's relevant
here, but that of the possessor (or at least the equipment thereof).

LH

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