[Ads-l] Antedating of "blow job"

[Mark Mandel]

Well, if you're going to be *picky* about it...

MAM

On Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 9:09 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> well, a transitive verb phrase, not a verb
>
> On Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 9:04 PM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > English, too, has a gender-neutral verb for oral sex: "give head".
> >
> > MAM
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 2:58 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Speaking of wind instruments...
> > >
> > > French may be among relatively few languages that sport a transitive
> verb
> > > underspecified for the meaning 'perform oral sex on', where the object
> > can
> > > denote a female or male individual. Standard glosses are exemplified by
> > > those in the OED, "To practise fellatio or cunnilingus on or with (a
> > > person)" for the verb and "An act of fellatio or cunnilingus" for the
> > > derived nominalization. The origin is unknown (barring a fanciful
> > > derivation), but there are two curiosities about Farmer & Henley's
> cite:
> > > (1) the main entry is given as _gamaruche_, although _gamahuche_ is
> given
> > > as a variant (orthographically speaking)
> > > (2) it cross-references "to bag-pipe"--this is where the wind
> instrument
> > > comes into play, but checking F&H's entry for that verb, we are told
> only
> > > that it's
> > >
> > > "A lascivious practice; too indecent to mention"
> > >
> > > Curious, since the practice (or practices) in question ("to irrumate",
> > "to
> > > cunnilinge") is mentioned under the _gamaruche_ entry, not to mention
> the
> > > degree of indecentness mentioned elsewhere by F&H.  Also the
> > non-definition
> > > is given for a noun form but it's the verb that's being left undefined.
> > > It's as if they were too busy fanning their faces at the indecorous
> item
> > to
> > > even notice the discrepancy.
> > >
> > > Seriously, though, I wonder if there's independent evidence that F&H
> grew
> > > bolder with their glosses as they moved from Vol. I (1890) (hosting "to
> > > bag-pipe") to Vol. III (1893) (hosting "gama{r/h}uche") and beyond.
> > >
> > > LH
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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