Who's diddling and how?

[Wilson Gray]

Benjamin Barrett supplies the quotation:

"_He diddled on the ground_ and, at long last, looked up and said: let
him who has not sinned be the first to cast the first stone at the
sinner."

Whoa! My initial interpretation was that he lay down on the ground and
then fucked it [i.e, the ground, the soil, the dirt, the very earth]!
That's a heavy picture to put into someone's mind. I was wondering
whether there was grass or weeds, bare earth, sand, whether he had
skinned his dork (in the skinned-knee sense, not the skinned-back
sense), etc.

-Wilson

On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 5:15 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Who's diddling and how?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just as a forewarning, there are some pretty X-rated citations below.
>
> The AHD4's definitions of diddle include:
>
> 1. to jerk up and down or back and forth
> 2. vulgar slang
> a. to have intercourse with (a woman)
> b. to practice masturbation upon
>
> My concern is  the relevance of "(a woman)". Generally, I take this
> sort of definition to be a remnant of older heterocentrist definitions
> and intended to mean "to play the active part in sexual intercourse",
> but it seems that not even that is adequate:
>
> -----
> The Ball of Kirriemuir (http://www.turoks.net/Bordello/TheBallOfKirriemuir.htm
> ) provides 17 examples of diddle:
>
> 1. The village glazier he was there, with his prick of glass
> He diddled 'em in their cunnys, and also in the ass!
>
> 1. the ladies wouldna have 'em, so they diddled dogs and trees!
>
> 2. The old fishmonger he was there, a dirty stinkin sod
> He never got a rise that night, so he diddled 'em with a cod!
>
> 3. Clan MacChluarain they were there, chasin' round the Keep
> And every single man of them buggerin' a sheep!
>
> (insert name) had a gerbil, he diddled it very well
> He didn't wrap it in duct tape: he blew it all to hell!
>
> 4. (Insert name), she was there, and she is past eighteen;
> She is a rapier fighter, so she diddled Florentine!
>
> 5. Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean,
> So she did the Fubba-Wubbas, while he diddled a Marine...!
> -----
>
> I think this covers just about every male/female/animal pairing
> possibility, demonstrating that diddle is not limited to just a man
> having intercourse with a woman. And Wiktionary agrees, saying "to
> have sex with".
>
> -----
> Also, in Letters to Penthouse X (http://tinyurl.com/6feo6h, page 131,
> 2000), there's "cockhead...as she diddled her clit with it." While
> this appears more related to definition 1 than 2, there are these as
> well, which hint to the development of definitions 2 from 1:
>
> 6. She diddled herself [with a baster].
> (The Sperm in Amy Lowe's Frig, by Roberta Price, http://www.prisoners.com/amysperm.html)
>
> 7. As she diddled herself with a candle,
> (Street of the thousand assholes, http://www.odps.org/glossword/index.php?a=term&d=5&t=143)
> ------
>
> I have trouble understanding what definition 2b actually means. Does
> this mean to masturbate and ejaculate on someone? Do you "diddle on/
> upon" someone? I think this is what Danny Glover's character did in
> _The Color Purple_ instead of sex, though Whoopi Goldberg's character
> called it "his business".
>
> Wiktionary says "to masturbate (especially of women)".
>
> Google has only a few hits for "he diddled on". Of the three citations
> that seem relevant, only one is available:
>
> 1. He diddled on the ground and, at long last, looked up and said: let
> him who has not sinned be the first to cast the first stone at the
> sinner.
> I assume he's talking about Onan here, though in the text, Jesus is
> the antecedent of "he". (What Should be Africans Attitude to Americans
> War on Terror by Ozodi Thomas Osuji, 19 Oct 2006 http://tinyurl.com/5jxlbq)
>
> Okay, no more diddling around. Back to work!
> BB
>
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--
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

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