Archaic terms for body parts

[LadyCypris]

I'm writing a story set in a quasi-medieval setting, and my protagonist is an inexperienced noblewoman. I'm trying to describe the sex as she would, but I'm blanking on more archaic words for the body parts, in particular the pussy. I'm trying to stay away from overtly harlequinny words like 'quim' and such, as well as clinical terms like 'vagina'.

Googling hasn't been very useful, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with using archaic sexual vocabulary. Or should I simply stick to using the usual vocabulary?

 

[StrangeLife]

I believe they simply used metaphors a lot.

"Pray permit me to sheat my battle-hardened sword in thy soft and receptive scabbard oh fair maiden, lest my passion becomes the end of me."

In classic literature the act of lovemaking is often referred to as picking a beautiful flower or something like that. Instead of being "horny" they were "burning with passion" and as a finale rather than "making a girl orgasm" a lover would "bring out the woman in her."

 

[NaokoSmith]

Hullo my dear

Oggbashan is your man, he will probably know lots. And AllardChardon. While you wait for them to come online, you could have a search in Seldom Used Words. Many of the contributors there will have good words to offer you. I did a small thread search, lots of posts came up when I put in 'vagina'. As it were .

Welcome to the board. Keep feet in boat. Do not feed trolls. Borrow TXRad's sharkproof suit if you ever go anywhere near Loving Wives.

Word games are good fun, there is always good advice on offer about writing and sometimes - when the moon is full and the pussy is at play , you may catch a little bit of flirting.

(You actually don't have to post naked pix, just in case anyone suggests that would be a good way to introduce yourself. Not even when you go drinking in the Naked Party thread.)

 

[oggbashan]

I'm writing a story set in a quasi-medieval setting, and my protagonist is an inexperienced noblewoman. I'm trying to describe the sex as she would, but I'm blanking on more archaic words for the body parts, in particular the pussy. I'm trying to stay away from overtly harlequinny words like 'quim' and such, as well as clinical terms like 'vagina'.

Googling hasn't been very useful, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with using archaic sexual vocabulary. Or should I simply stick to using the usual vocabulary?

It depends on exactly when your story is set. How medieval is medieval?

If you are looking at 14th Century, Chaucer is the man to copy - The Miller's Tale is a good start. Later? Try Shakespeare's historical plays. Or this site: http://www.pathguy.com/shakeswo.htm

Genuine medieval words could cause you a problem because modern readers won't understand them.

I've grabbed this from a search for Shakespeare and sexual words:

Shakespearean Sexual Words

Shakespeare was a master of double-meaning, especially if they would win his fellow actors dirty laughs.

Female genitalia

another thing, baldrick, belly, bird's nest, blackness, box unseen, breach, case, charged chambres, chaste treasure, circle, city, clack-dish, cliff, commodity, constable, corner, coun, crack, dearest bodily part, den, dial, et cetera, eye, flower, forfended place, gate, hole, hook, lap, ling, low countries, mark, medlar, naked seeing self, nest of spicery, Netherlands, O, peculiar river, Pillicock-hill, plum, pond, ring, rose, rudder, ruff, salmon's tail, scut, secret parts, secret things, spain, sty, tail, thing, treasure, Venus' glove, vice, way, what, withered pear and wound.

Male genitalia

bauble, bugle, dart of love, lance, pike, pistol, pole-axe, potent regiment,
standard, sword, weapon, horn, hook, carrot, holy thistle, pizzle, pear, potato finger, prick, root, stake, stalk, tail, thorn, bauble, cock, codpiece, distaff, instrument, organ, needle, pen, pin, pipe, stump, three-inch fool, tool, yard, lag-end, little finger, loins, nose, pillicock, tale, thing and
Roger!

Lovemaking nouns

act, action, adultery, amorous rite, works, angling, assault, copulation,
custom, conversation, deed, disport, downright way, effect of love, emballing, encounter, execution, foining, foot, fornication, game, getting up, groping, horsemanship, husbandry, incest, lechery, luxury, making, match, mirth, momentary trick, occupation, pricking, relief, rents and revenues, revels, right, service, stairwork, trunkwork, taking, thrust, tictack, tillage,
tilth, trading, traffic, trick, turn in the bed, union, use, usury and work.

Lovemaking verbs

to achieve, bed, blow up, board, break the pale, breach, broach, burden,
carry, charge, clap, climb, colt, horse, come over, come to it, cope, couch, cover, do, draw, ear, encounter, execute, fill a bottle with a tin dish, fit, flesh one's will, foin, foot, hang one's bugle in an invisible baldric, have, hit, hack, husband, husband her bed, joy, jump, know, lay down, leap, lie, make, man, manage, meddle with, mount, occupy, pick the lock, please oneself upon,
plough, possess, prick out, put down, put to, ram, revel in, ride, scale, serve, set up one's rest, sing, sink in, sluice, soil, stab, strike, stuff, surfeit, take, taste, throw, thrust to the wall, thump, tire on, top, tread, trim, tumble, tup, use, vault, wanton and work.

© Shakespeare Out Loud INC.
www.shakespeareoutloud.ca

 

[NaokoSmith]

Netherlands is nice! LOL. I like Venus's glove too - very evocative.

Three-inch fool, huh? Proof that people are getting physically larger these days? Do you think medieval women had trouble parking their cart because they weren't sure what three inches was?

 

[oggbashan]

...

Three-inch fool, huh? Proof that people are getting physically larger these days? Do you think medieval women had trouble parking their cart because they weren't sure what three inches was?

From The Taming of the Shrew:

CURTIS

Is she so hot a shrew as she's reported?

GRUMIO

She was, good Curtis, before this frost: but, thou
knowest, winter tames man, woman and beast; for it
hath tamed my old master and my new mistress and
myself, fellow Curtis.

CURTIS

Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast.

GRUMIO

Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and
so long am I at the least. But wilt thou make a
fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress,
whose hand, she being now at hand, thou shalt soon
feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office?

 

[NaokoSmith]

That goes to show the importance of badinage. I still like best the stories here where there is witty badinage. LOL, 'thy horn is a foot'.

 

[hoo_hoo_boo]

I'm writing a story set in a quasi-medieval setting, and my protagonist is an inexperienced noblewoman. I'm trying to describe the sex as she would, but I'm blanking on more archaic words for the body parts, in particular the pussy. I'm trying to stay away from overtly harlequinny words like 'quim' and such, as well as clinical terms like 'vagina'.

Googling hasn't been very useful, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with using archaic sexual vocabulary. Or should I simply stick to using the usual vocabulary?

Ogg has helped considerably I suspect. People think that talk of sex is new but it isn't. I know the Puritans enjoyed it. Chaucer did too.

My impression is that you could write it without such words- you could write it as what they are doing and not include to what. It would be obvious any way. I suspect this could be very effective. It's strange but my perception is, any thing old can be written in a Victorian manner and it will seem appropriate. In Victorian times they avoided direct talk about sex but often used innuendo.

It's just a thought.

 

[PayDay]

Oggbashan is your man, he will probably know lots. And AllardChardon. While you wait for them to come online, you could have a search in Seldom Used Words. Many of the contributors there will have good words to offer you. I did a small thread search, lots of posts came up when I put in 'vagina'. As it were .

There are good teachers

 

[sunandshadow]

Farming metaphors were pretty common - a woman was a field and a man plowed her, sowing his seed; the man's dick was a stem and sap rose up through it; the woman's pussy was a flower which produced nectar or honey. The penis was also metaphorized as a wick, which was dipped into the woman's oil, as in a lamp. There were also a lot of metaphors about putting one thing into another: a pussy was a sheathe, a pocket, a purse, a baldric, a muff (type of winter clothing). An entertaining one was referring to the penis as a dragon and the pussy as the dragon's cave. Pearls, oysters, and clams were well known in some places and another source of metaphors for the labia and the clitoris.

 

[CattyTonic]

Get Thee to Amazon.com! (or your local 2nd hand book store)

I'm writing a story set in a quasi-medieval setting, and my protagonist is an inexperienced noblewoman. I'm trying to describe the sex as she would, but I'm blanking on more archaic words for the body parts, in particular the pussy. I'm trying to stay away from overtly harlequinny words like 'quim' and such, as well as clinical terms like 'vagina'.

Googling hasn't been very useful, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with using archaic sexual vocabulary. Or should I simply stick to using the usual vocabulary?

If you want a fun read & some great inspiration, take a look at "Fanny" by Erica Jong http://www.amazon.com/Fanny-Being-History-Adventures-Hackabout-Jones/dp/0393324354

It's charming, sexy, funny, and written by a woman with a huge hard-on for words, writing, literature and history. I've seen this book in several thrift-stores, so it should be relatively easy to find. Good luck!