when "intercourse" got funny

[Baker, John]

        So how did "occupy" get desexualized?  I can understand it with
a word like "jape," which ISTR fell out of use because of its sexual
connotations and, much later, was rediscovered in its earlier innocent
sense.  "Occupy" seems like a less likely case.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 9:57 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: when "intercourse" got funny

The  allegations about "occupy" appear to be true.  The latest OED
revisions include relevant comments about "occupy" from both Shakespeare
and Jonson - most remarkable !

  Jonson complained that "many" had quit using the word "nature" because
of their own "obscene Apprehensions."

  JL
"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
Subject: Re: when "intercourse" got funny
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On Sep 27, 2006, at 9:48 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> ... One might contrast the career of "occupy," which eighteenth-
> cenury writers allegedly began avoiding in droves because it had
> become sexualized; there was no social counterbalance to keep the word

> innocent. But eventually everybody forgot the sexual meaning, which
> seems remarkable in itself.

that has always seemed astonishing to me. if the standard story is to be
believed, the word was desexualized, an event that is, i think, quite
rare in language history. i can devise a story that would allow this to
happen, but it would require a competitor word that came into fashion
and swamped "occupy" in the sexual meaning, so freeing the word up for
non-sexual meanings. unfortunately, i'm deeply ignorant of word
histories in the 18th and 19th centuries.

arnold

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