"Cock"

[Jonathan Lighter]

But wait!

One ex. doesn't make a speech community.  Perhaps Doten used the word one
way and his sweetie used it in the other. Thus the seeming unisex "meaning"
would simply be for the nonce.

Just a hypothesis.  But the real test is this: if Doten's usage really was
typical of him, presumably it reflected that also hypothetical speech
community where the usage really was ordinarily unisex.

If that's the case, where are their descendants?  Do any of us naturally and
ordinarily use the word in a unisex way? (Even better: who uses unisex
"cock" but then uses other words to specify which sort?)

I didn't catch the unisex potential of the Doten ex. when I found it 15 or
20 years ago  because the concept was unthinkable. To me. As a
representative of a speech community.

At any rate: where are the people with unselfconscious unisex usage and,
equally to the point, how many are there and, if any, how many of them are
over, say, thirty?

Dissertation topic anyone?

JL



On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Cock"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks, Doug.
>
> I won't mention that it's in HDAS I, though not defined as unisex. It
> illustrates the female nuance.
>
> The circuits are obviously burning out. Trust no one.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 6:06 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Cock"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > There is a 'unisex' 1867 Doten reference, which was noted on this list a
> > few months ago.
> >
> > <<We felt of each other's cocks ... and then she got on and fucked me
> > bully.>>
> >
> > I think at least one other clearly 'unisex' quotation has appeared on
> > this list, but I can't find it now.
> >
> > No matter how strange it may seem to some of us moderns, it appears that
> > "cock" was 'unisex' for some in the past (wouldn't amaze me if it
> > remains so for somebody somewhere).
> >
> > -- Doug Wilson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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
>



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

------------------------------------------------------------
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