Whore's Bath

[Wilson Gray]

I *think* that I've heard, with reference to males, "finger-wash your
junk" in the animated cartoon, American Dad. But, my ears not being
what they used to be, I'm really essentially just guessing WRT
"finger-wash."

-Wilson

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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 2:15 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Whore's Bath
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 1:55 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'm getting this from "Austin Powers" where the hero mentions "whore's
>> bath" as a quick wash of the sexual essentials. I see it listed in
>> Urban Dictionary, but that doesn't really mean much. Anyone heard of
>> this outside the context of the movie, maybe even prior to the 1997
>> movie?
>
> It's in the new Cassell's and the new Partridge, dating to WWII if not earlier.
> Two cites from Google Book Search:
>
> ---
> 1944 A.J. Liebling _The Road Back to Paris_ 242 The helmet may also serve on
> occasion as a bathtub. The bather fills it with water, removes one article of
> clothing at a time, rubs the water hastily over the surface thus exposed, and
> replaces the garment before taking off another one. This is called taking a
> whore's bath.
> ---
> 1950 Hyman E. Goldin _Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo_ 237 Whore's bath.
> (P) A light sponge-bath, usually with cold water, taken in one's cell. [Note: A
> bath once a week is still standard prison routine even in the most progressive
> prisons.]
> ---
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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