[Ads-l] Venus Callipyga (and a colleague)

Fri Apr 23 13:21:56 UTC 2021

Or Storm Large (www.stormlarge.com<http://www.stormlarge.com>), a real performer
and, FWIW, it is her real (i.e. birth) name.
She has appeared several times recently with the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra and also does terrific
Cabaret performances – the last one we saw was also
in the Black Box at Orchestra Hall.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
https://clasprofiles.wayne.edu/profile/an6993
geoffnathan at wayne.edu

From: Jonathan Lighter<mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2021 8:41 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Venus Callipyga (and a colleague)

[EXTERNAL]

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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Subject:      Re: Venus Callipyga (and a colleague)
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Not to be confused with Gale Storm.

JL

On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 8:02 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> In the same day=E2=80=99s paper (at least calculating from the printed ve=
rsion
> dropped off on our doorstep this morning), we have the semantically not
> unrelated =E2=80=9Cecdysiastical=E2=80=9D from an obit for Tempest Storm =
(not her real
> name, but apparently a happily chosen one):
>
> "Routinely named in the same ardent breath as the great 20th-century
> ecdysiasts Lili St. Cyr, Blaze Starr and Gypsy Rose Lee, Ms. Storm was
> every inch as ecdysiastical as they, and for far longer.=E2=80=9D
> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/arts/tempest-storm-dead.html
>
> Sticking to the adjective and adverb (without stripping down to the
> nominal =E2=80=9Cecdysiast=E2=80=9D), a search of the Times archives turn=
s up (at least)
> two instances of =E2=80=9Cecdysiastic=E2=80=9D and one of =E2=80=9Cecdysi=
astically=E2=80=9D but none of
> =E2=80=9Cecdysiastical=E2=80=9D. This may be a =E2=80=9CTimes first=E2=80=
=9D:
> https://www.reddit.com/r/NYTFirsts/comments/mvkxnc/ecdysiastical/.
>
> OED has no entry for =E2=80=9Cecdysiastical=E2=80=9D, but helpful suggest=
s I must have
> meant =E2=80=9Cecclesiastical=E2=80=9D.  Close enough for=E2=80=A6well, y=
ou decide what sort of
> work. The OED does confirm (correctly?) that the nominal =E2=80=9Cecdysia=
st=E2=80=9D tracks
> back to a 1940 coinage by Mencken:
>
> "It might be a good idea to relate strip-teasing in some way..to the
> associated zo=C3=B6logical phenomenon of molting... A resort to the scien=
tific
> name for molting, which is _ecdysis_, produces both _ecdysist_ and
> _ecdysiast_.=E2=80=9D
>
> LH
>
> > On Apr 22, 2021, at 4:44 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote=
:
> >
> > NY Times, Ap. 21, =E2=80=9CWhat happened to Vikki Dougan? The Model Onc=
e Known
> as =E2=80=98The Back=E2=80=99=E2=80=A6=E2=80=9D reported she inspired a 1=
961 song that mentioned her
> =E2=80=9Ccallipygian cleft.=E2=80=9D
> > OED callipygian, adj. (with examples from 1831ff) etymology adds
> =E2=80=9CCompare the following earlier attestations of the plural noun ca=
llipygae (
> < post-classical Latin callipygae , feminine plural (1556 or earlier)):
> > 1624   T. Heywood =CE=93=CF=85=CE=BD=CE=B1=CE=B9=CE=BA=CE=B5=E1=BF=96=
=CE=BF=CE=BD vi. 297   From which time, euer after, the
> two young marryed wiues were called Callipygae.
> > 1646   Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iv. vi. 195   Callipyg=C3=A6=
 and
> women largely composed behinde.
> > With the form calipygean<
> https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/26445?redirectedFrom=3Dcallipygian#eid1173=
603050>
> compare -ean suffix<https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/58948#eid5896753>.
> >
> > N.E.D. (1888) indicates that the phrase =E2=80=98Callipygian Venus=E2=
=80=99 was in use
> before 1800, but evidence is lacking.=E2=80=9D
> > Maybe so, though close is John Breval, Remarks on several parts of
> Europe:
> > relating chiefly to their antiquities and history. Collected upon the
> spot in several tours since the year 1723=E2=80=A6 (London, 1738) p. 27
> [GoogleBooks]:
> > One Temple there [in Sicily] was among the rest that deserves particula=
r
> Notice, not so much upon the Account of its Dedication to Venus , by the
> very singular Epithet of Callipyga , (Pulchris natibus ornata ) as from t=
he
> ( b ) Contest between two handsome Syracusian Sisters, to which it owed i=
ts
> Rise.
> > [footnote b includes:=E2=80=A6]
> > It was upon this Occasion the young Man built the said Temple to Venus
> Callipyga. Athen. Lib. Xii.
> > Stephen
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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