groin

[Jonathan Lighter]

One man, one groin.

JL

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: groin
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> An inveterate jock and sports fan myself, I would never refer to a ruptured
> testicle as a "groin injury." (I wouldn't even dare think about one of
> those!) A groin injury is a pulled muscle in the area of a man's (or, I
> suppose, a woman's) sole groin.  The question was whether it's idiomatic to
> speak of a person's having TWO groins (left and right).
>
> --Charlie
>
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 10:31:59 -0400
> >From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> (on behalf of
> Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>)>
> >On 5/10/10 10:20 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:
> >> In the sports section of yesterday's newspaper, an Atlanta Braves
> outfielder was said to be suffering from an injury to his "left groin." The
> phrasing immediately moved me to wonder, "How many does his have?" I
> certainly would have said the "left side of his groin."
> >>
> >> Evidently, however (judging from the OED attestations of the noun), in
> the 16th century and earlier one could have multiple groins . . . .
> >>
> >
> >In sports-injury-speak, a groin injury is an injury to a lower-abdominal
> >muscle or tendon, so the left or right business would refer to which
> >side of the pelvis the injured muscle attaches to. (/anatomical
> handwaving)
> >
> >What lay observers like us would normally think of as a groin injury is,
> >instead, referred to more descriptively as "a (nearly-)ruptured
> >testicle". See
> ><
> http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Sami-Salo-reportedly-suffers-ruptured-tes?urn=nhl,239744
> >
> >for current examples.
> >--
>
> >==============================================================================
> >Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
> >Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
> >New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org