[Ads-l] bawdy = 'rowdily humorous; slapstick'

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jan 21, 2021, at 6:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Oooh!  "Entwine"!  Just reading the word gives me a thrill.
> 
> Not.
> 
> Maybe the term people are groping for (sorry for the indecency) is
> "suggestive."
> 
> So perhaps 'suggestive' is another new meaning of "bawdy."  (Like
> 'surprised' is the latest meaning of "shocked.")
> 
> 

…which makes it harder to gloss the increasingly apt description of the behavior of certain public figures, “I’m shocked, but not surprised”.

> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 4:37 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> According to the L.A. Times, the key word is “entwine”, from the line
>> 
>> ‘I’ll instruct you, like me to entwine; The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s
>> vine’
>> 
>> Since as the newspaper helpfully points out,
>> 
>> '“entwine” is defined in any dictionary’.
>> 
>> —although they acknowledge the sexual allusion is “understated”.
>> 
>> So I guess we’re quibbling with that periodical over the threshold of what
>> counts as “sex”, and therefore as “bawdy”. (I can’t count the number of pix
>> I’ve received in which two kittens qualify as lying entwined in what I’ve
>> always taken to be a platonic way.) Maybe it should be the L.A. Times
>> rather than its N.Y. cousin that qualifies as the Gray Lady.
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jan 21, 2021, at 2:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Reading the lyrics reveals nothing bawdy to me (i.e., 'humorously
>> indecent;
>>> obscene; lewd'). Nor is the L.A. Times a reliable guide to 18th century
>>> poesy.
>>> 
>>> Anyone capable of writing the lyrics - written for a convivial singers'
>>> club ("Sons of Harmony") - would know that the myrtle was sacred to
>> Venus,
>>> goddess of love, and that Bacchus was the god of wine (in poetic
>> language,
>>> often "the vine").
>>> 
>>> The singers want the spirit of Anacreon to help them harmonize about love
>>> and wine in a conventional neo-classic manner, and the beauty of their
>>> singing is irresistible to the gods. If someone gets horny reading the
>> poem
>>> (or singing the song), that's their problem.
>>> 
>>> Because if the harmonizers want also to fuck around, they don't say so
>>> here. And they could easily find ways to do so, with or without
>> Anacreon's
>>> assistance.
>>> 
>>> JL
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 1:56 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> FWIW, the Wikipedia article is at
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anacreontic_Song <
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anacreontic_Song>. While frequently
>> not
>>>> followed, original research is prohibited on Wikipedia as it is a
>>>> tertiary-sourced encyclopedia.
>>>> 
>>>> The comment about the song being bawdy is not sourced, so that is
>> original
>>>> research, but I think "To Anacreon in Heav’n” is clearly bawdy even if
>>>> judged by today’s standards.
>>>> 
>>>> ###
>>>> "And, besides I'll instruct you, like me, to intwine
>>>> "The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine.”
>>>> ###
>>>> 
>>>> The LA Times says that the song is a paean to drinking and sex (
>>>> https://tinyurl.com/y4nv6xbp <https://tinyurl.com/y4nv6xbp>).
>>>> 
>>>> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
>>>> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>>>> 
>>>> On 21 Jan 2021, at 04:54, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Wikipedia considers the turgid English song, "To Anacreon in Heav'n"
>>>>> (ca.1770), to be "bawdy":
>>>>> 
>>>>> "The song, through its bawdy lyrics, gained popularity in London and
>>>>> elsewhere beyond the Anacreontic Society."
>>>>> 
>>>>> The lyrics irreverently and humorously imagine the enthusiasm of the
>> gods
>>>>> to desert Olympus and join the harmonious singers of the Anacreontic
>>>>> Society, against the wishes of Zeus.
>>>>> 
>>>>> (N.b., a Brit at Quora.com assured followers that the U.S. national
>>>> anthem
>>>>> was based on a "pornographic song," but nothing could be less
>>>> pornographic
>>>>> than a bunch of drunks trying to sing these lyrics to the same melody
>> as
>>>>> the "Star-Spangled Banner.")
>>>>> 
>>>>> JL
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> 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."
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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