Buchinger's Boot

[Laurence Horn]

On Jun 3, 2014, at 9:18 PM, Bill Mullins wrote:

> Buchinger’s Boot
>
>
>
> Not in OED.  An
> obscure euphemism for a woman’s vagina.
> Matthew Buchinger (1674 – 1740) was a German dwarf with no arms or legs
> (his penis was the closest thing he had to a foot, thus the expression).   He was also quite the swordsman, having had
> four wives, fourteen children (by eight women), and multiple mistresses.
>
>
>
> Francis Grose.  _A
> Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
> Second Edition._  London:  S. Hooper, 1788.  Unpaginated. [not in 1st edition of 1785]
>
> “Buckinger’s Boot.
> The monosyllable.  Matthew
> Buckinger was born without hands and legs; notwithstanding which he drew coats
> of arms very neatly, and could write the Lord’s Prayer within the compass of a
> shilling:  he was married to a tall
> handsome woman, and traversed the country, shewing himself for money.” ["the monosyllable" = cunt?]

Indeed, whence "the M word".  Well, maybe not, but the 7 or so pages of entries of synonyms (my copy is at work) in Farmer & Henley's _Slang_ (1890-1904) for what other lexicons of the era might have glossed as 'pudendum muliebre', mostly for English but a scattering for French, Italian, German, etc., are to be found under "monosyllable".  And the F word?  For Farmer & Henley, those options are collected under "Greens".

LH
>
>
>
> The following passage may allude to the expression, I
> believe.
>
>
>
> Nov 13 1782 _London Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser_ p 3
> col 1
>
> “A gentleman in the boxes observed, that Mrs. Kennedy’s boot
> in the new Opera, were of the true Cordovian cut – An Hibernian denied the
> premises:  “my soul,” says he, but the
> boot is true Buckinger cut – This Buckinger, my dear was a fellow who hand
> neither hands nor feet.”
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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