'Learn' As in Biblical 'Know'

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:33 PM -0400 3/24/09, Charles Doyle wrote:
>The idea that sexual experience (like all other human endeavors)
>could and should be an avenue to knowledge was a well established
>Christian/Platonic (even "Puritan") concept in the 16th and 17th
>centuries.  That's one of the implications of the term "carnal
>knowledge"--what's often referred to nowadays as "knowing in the
>biblical sense" (which means "in the KJV sense"!).  Of course, the
>phrase was also simply a euphemism.
>
>Knowledge comes from learning; so it seems that we OUGHT to
>encounter sexual learning (and sexual teaching) alongside (or prior
>to) sexual knowledge!  Searching the phrase "carnal learning" does
>turn up some Google hits:  900+ of them, together with 500 in Google
>Books--some of which seem to quote the phrase from the early Quaker
>George Fox, and many are from the 19th century.
>
>--Charlie
>

No hits at all for "carnal(ly) forgetting", even though it might be
convenient on occasion.

LH

>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:22:51 -0400
>>From: Doug Harris <cats22 at STNY.RR.COM>
>>Subject: 'Learn' As in Biblical 'Know'
>>
>>I'm not a biblical scholar, but I seem to recall it using the term
>>'know'  or 'known' relative to sexual intercourse. I recently saw
>>what I imagined to be a twist on that concept, in a poem written by
>>a 23-yr-old about a love-gone-bad situation. The line read 'Two
>>years ago you learned me.' Earlier, she'd spoken of him fucking
>>her. So the inference in the 'learned' reference is clear.
>>--
>>I don't recall ever seeing that usage before. Is it more common
>>that I imagine it to be?
>
>>dh
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org