Q: soixante neuf (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:11 PM -0400 10/29/09, Mark Mandel wrote:
>On the meaning, I would define it not as "simultaneous cunnilingus and
>fellatio", but as "simultaneous mutual oral sex". I remember hearing it with
>reference to male-male pairings as well. Google /"gay 69"/ claims "about
>58,200" hits; and /"lesbian 69"/ "about 128,000".
>
>On the origin, I've always assumed it was not just from rotational symmetry
>but iconic. But that's just my opinion.

Agreed on both.  I was going to post on Joel's unwarranted
heterosexist restriction below, but you've pre-empted me, and I can't
imagine it's anything other than iconic in origin.  I have a leather
belt that an old classmate-turned-leathersmith once made for my
birthday; its brass buckle has the form of our shared zodiac sign (he
designed it in the sixties, back when that seemed to be a good idea).
We're both Cancers (or, as the horoscopes euphemistically put it,
"Moon Children"), so the buckle displays the glyph that looks for all
the world like a sideways 69; cf. e.g.
http://www.yourastrologyfree.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/zodiac-signs.gif
I've often wondered about what people think when they look at that
belt buckle...

LH
>
>On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 5:02 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
>Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>
>>
>>  Does this have anything to do with a particular page #/position in the
>  > Kama Sutra?  Did it come from the rotationally symmetric appearance of
>  > the digits 6 and 9?  Is soixante neuf older than the English
>>  "sixty-nine" (meaning the same thing)?
>>
>>  > -----Original Message-----
>>  > From: American Dialect Society On Behalf Of Joel S. Berson
>>  >
>>  > How far back does "soixante neuf" ("Simultaneous cunnilingus and
>>  > fellatio") go in English?  In French?  As early as Byron?
>>  >
>>  > The OED has 1888.
>>  >
>>  > Joel
>>
>
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