"lay pit and box together"

[Baker, John]

This is an operation in copulation?  The mind boggles.
 
 
John Baker
 

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Joel S. Berson
Sent: Thu 8/2/2007 10:10 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "lay pit and box together"



The phrase "lay pit and box together" is not in OED2.  Two meanings
(see Grose, 1811; Google "Lay Pit Boxes together midwives"):

1)  In a theater, combine the two areas (Grose does not say this, but
probably to increase revenue for a popular play);

2)  "an operation in midwifery or copulation, whereby the division
between the anus and vagina is cut through, broken, and demolished".

Probably enhanced by an association of "pit" with the anus and
excretion (although I don't find this in OED2), and the sense of
"box" as vulva or vagina (e.g., Chapman; from 1600).

Joel

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