Early Example of "Make Love" Meaning "Have Sex"

[Laurence Horn]

Might also be worth looking at "faire l'amour", which underwent a similar shift (earlier? simultaneously?).

LH

On Aug 20, 2014, at 12:38 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Much better.
> 
> One suspects that the euphemism (perhaps only in speech) is quite old,
> since "love" in the relevant sense goes back centuries.
> 
> Before the 1920s, I doubt that so "degraded" a euphemism would have been
> found outside of court transcripts.
> 
> JL
> 
> 
> On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 7:24 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Early Example of "Make Love" Meaning "Have Sex"
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> Another probable early example of "make love" meaning "have sex" is from
>> _L=
>> ady Chatterley=92s Lover_:
>> 
>>    =91It seems to me you might leave the labels off sex. We=92re free to
>> t=
>> alk to anybody; so why shouldn=92t we be free to make love to any woman
>> who=
>> inclines us that way?=92
>> 
>>    =91There speaks the lascivious Celt,=92 said Clifford.
>> 
>> Fred Shapiro=
>> 
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>> 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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