hoo-ha as euphemism (revisited)

[Wilson Gray]

The penis-fish story predates Burroughs. I first read about it in a
book on sexual customs of primitive peoples, back in the 'Forties. (It
was only background material. The candiru doesn't enter into - no pun
intended - even the most primitive of sexual customs, apparently.)

I'm pleasantly impressed by the used of "dread," as opposed to the
unfortunately much more common overcorrection, "dreaded."

BTW, anybody else remember this old Playboy cartoon: the stands are
filled with male tourists watching as a local farmer drives a mule to
plow a field and another farmer follows after, sowing seed. One
tourist turns to another and comments something like, "This isn't
exactly the kind of primitive fertility rite that I had in mind."

-Wilson

On 4/27/07, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: hoo-ha as euphemism (revisited)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 7:13 PM -0500 2/14/07, Kevin Birge wrote:
> >I don't think its usage could be THAT widespread since just last year or
> >2005, Domino's Pizza was running the ad where the store manager tries to
> >motivate his crew to pizza spinning greatness by saying "Can I get a 'HOO-HA
> >two times Tuesday!' people!?"
> >
> >Unless he actually meant he wanted a hoo-ha two times on Tuesday, which I
> >think could be construed as some kind of sexual harassment and really
> >wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to advertise. but I'm neither an ad exec,
> >nor a lawyer.
>
> Another hoo- variant just spotted on last night's "Grey's Anatomy":
>
>   Dr. Meredith Grey, explaining that even though (unlike their present
> patient, the married former head of the hospital, who had just been
> diagnosed as being afflicted with the dread candiru, the parasitic
> Amazon penis-fish that apparently crawled up his urine stream and
> that I'd only ever previously encountered in Burroughs' _Naked
> Lunch_, which was seen as divine retribution for his carrying on with
> his beautiful secretary) she had managed to carry on herself with the
> then married Dr. Derek Shepard (a.k.a. Dr. McDreamy):
>
> "A fish didn't lodge in my hoo-hoo, but it was no easy ride"
>
> So we have the hoo-hah, the hootee, and now the hoo-hoo.  Or is that
> just the Seattle variant?  (Isogloss alert!)
>
> LH
>
> >
> >On 2/14/07, Sam Clements <SClements at neo.rr.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>Poster:       Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
> >>Subject:      Re: hoo-ha as euphemism
> >>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>I can report that I remember hearing my sister-in-law, in 1963, refer to a
> >>vagina as a "hootee." [accent on first syllable.  I don't know how it was
> >>spelled, of course.] She would have been about 16 at the time.  She was
> >>born
> >>and raised in Richmond, VA. as was her mother.  And I would be sure that
> >>her
> >>mother taught her the word.  That was the first time I can remember
> >>hearing
> >>and use of "hoo-" in relation to a vagina.  I don't think I heard the "hoo
> >>ha" until rather more recently, last 20 years, and since I've lived in
> >>Akron, OH.
> >>
> >>Sam Clements
> >>
> >>------------------------------------------------------------
> >>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens
------
The tongue has no bones, yet it breaks bones.

                                           Rumanian proverb

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org