Q: soixante neuf

[Garson O'Toole]

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 10:29 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Q: soixante neuf
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm still waiting for someone -- anyone! -- to address my questions,
> which are about dating (before 1888).
>
> At 10/29/2009 09:06 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>Agreed on both.  I was going to post on Joel's unwarranted
>>heterosexist restriction below
>
> It's the OED2's (i.e., 1989) unwarranted restriction.  I thought
> everyone would recognize the quotation, and carelessly did not cite my source.

I have not been able to improve the 1888 OED cite, but the following
information might prove useful to someone. The term "soixante-neuf"
appears in a book of vocabulary entitled "Vocabula Amatoria" in 1896.
The English language definition of the term does not mention the
direct translation "sixty-nine". The book provides some evidence that
the sexual terms "soixante-neuf" and "sixty-nine" were not widely
known to English speakers in 1896.

FAIRE SOIXANTE-NEUF = a posture in venery, in which the woman is
gamahuched by the man, he being tongued by his partner. Also FAIRE
TÊTE BÊCHE.

Citation: Vocabula Amatoria: A French-English Glossary of Words,
Phrases and Allusions Occurring in the Works of Rabelais, Voltaire,
Moliere, Rousseau, Beranger, Zola, and Others with English Equivalents
and Synonyms", London, Privately Printed for Subscribers Only, 1896.

http://books.google.com/books?id=bQnUAAAAMAAJ&q=Soixante-neuf#v=snippet&q=Soixante-neuf&f=false

Note, the definition given in the book makes an assumption about the
participants, male-female, that is similar to the one discussed above.
The book gives French language examples for "soixante-neuf" in works
labeled "Parnasse Satyrique" and "Chanson anonyme modern".

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