[Ads-l] bawdy = 'rowdily humorous; slapstick'
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Jan 22 01:24:02 UTC 2021
> 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
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