Sexual meaning of chimney and chimney sweeps in the 18th century?

[Wilson Gray]

"Butter some buns" was the favorite catch-phrase -  in the relevant
meaning, of course - of the first schoolboy-friend of mine to die:
myocardial infarction 25 years ago. I found the phrase annoying.

He would have been astonished to discover that the phrase hadn't been
invented around 1945 by some random stud behind the Cotton Curtain. I
am, at least. The phrase has always had a hick-ish,
from-out-in-the-country sound to me.

Youneverknow.

-Wilson

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 2:39 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Sexual meaning of chimney and chimney sweeps in the 18th
>              century?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1:45 PM -0400 3/29/10, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>>The following reference has an entry for "chimney" that contains a
>>relevant example in the 18th century and multiple examples from
>>earlier centuries. The link below goes to near the beginning of the
>>"chimney" entry. On the next page Masquerade Ballad (c. 1720; Farmer
>>III.233) is given as an example.
>>
>>Citation: 1994, A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in
>>Shakespearean and Stuart literature by Gordon Williams, Continuum
>>International Publishing Group. (Google Books limited view)
>>
>>http://books.google.com/books?id=2XtWDhgljvkC&q=%22placing+la+casa%22#v=snippet&
>>
>>Google Books contains a collection that includes Masquerade Ballad. {...}
>>
>
> Indeed, and with unisex value for "chimney", at least for the Italian
> counterpart.  Nice cite also for "buttered bun" in the above link too
> in a (sloppily) secondary use.
>
> LH
>
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--
-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

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