"Moby sex"?

[Laurence Horn]

On Oct 28, 2013, at 3:28 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> The rarely consulted HDAS II offers exx. of _moby_ 'huge' going back to the
> Moby Grape days of the '60s.
>
> Am not sure, though, that "moby sex" means "big sex." Astonishing sex
> perhaps?
>
> JL

Or sex with a whale (astonishing in its own way, if you're not a whale).

LH


>
>
> On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 2:34 PM, Dan Goodman <dsgood at iphouse.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Dan Goodman <dsgood at IPHOUSE.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "Moby sex"?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On 10/27/2013 07:32 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>>>
>>> From the Jargon File, http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/moby.html,
>>> definitions 1 and 5 of "moby" appear relevant:
>>>
>>>
>>> moby: /moh bee/ [MIT: seems to have been in use among model railroad
>>> fans years ago. Derived from Melville's Moby Dick (some say from
>>> ‘Moby Pickle’). Now common.]
>>>
>>> 1. adj. Large, immense, complex, impressive. “A Saturn V rocket is a
>>> truly moby frob.” “Some MIT undergrads pulled off a moby hack at the
>>> Harvard-Yale game.” (See Appendix A for discussion.)
>>>
>>> . . . .
>>>
>>> 5. The largest available unit of something which is available in
>>> discrete increments. Thus, ordering a “moby Coke” at the local
>>> fast-food joint is not just a request for a large Coke, it's an
>>> explicit request for the largest size they sell.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Surprisingly, not in Urban Dictionary, which suggests that this
>>> meaning has largely passed out of use.
>>
>> Much thanks!
>>
>> --
>> Dan Goodman
>> Whatever you wish for me, may you have twice as much.
>> http://dsgoodman.blogspot.com
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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