"black as Caesar's tail"

[James Harbeck]

>What about "black as the devil's anus?" I'm not even sure if that is "real"
>or if I made it up. I think I've heard it before. Kind of similar to
>"Caesar's tail" if Caesar is considered evil.

"Anus" hasn't been in colloquial use in English all that long, has
it? I thought it was a mid- to late-20th-century thing to use terms
like "penis," "vagina," and "anus" in non-medical conversations. I
know "anus" has been in English since the 17th century at least, but
as a technical term. So "black as the devil's anus" would have been,
in earlier times, "black as the devil's ass (arse) (or asshole,
arsehole)" or, in politer terms, "black as the devil's tail" --
"tail" being used to mean rectal region (even sans appendage, of
which of course the devil does have one) since Middle English at
least.

(Hmm... devil's butt... anus horribilis!)

James Harbeck.

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