[off-list] Re: [ADS-L] "fanny", n.4

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/15/2012 11:53 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>On 12/15/2012 11:27 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>....
>>
>>On Dec 15, 2012, at 7:59 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>>On Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 10:38 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>>><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>Cf. masculine "Roger" and "Dick."
>>>Not to mention "Peter."
>>and "willy"/"willy", and the family name "johnson", and the full
>>name "John Thomas", etc.
>>
>>so far so good.  it's my impression that these names were first
>>given by men to their own bodyparts.  what evidence -- especially
>>from names *other* than "fanny" -- is there about who first used
>>female names this way?  did women name their own bodyparts?  did
>>men name women's bodyparts? or what?
>--
>
>I don't know for sure that it was [only] men who named whoever's body
>parts, and I don't know how one could reliably estimate the respective
>contributions from men and from women.
>
>In recent times these names appear to be [mostly] male. But Farmer and
>Henley show (for the female part) ... among _many_ other words ... a few
>apparent given names: Aunt Maria, Black Bess, Itching Jenny, Lady Jane,
>Madge, and of course Fanny.

So who *were* the eponyms for these euphemyms -- esp. "fanny"?

Joel

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