Historical slang for sex and genitals

[tomlitilia]

Stumbled onto these:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/57872/31-adorable-slang-terms-sexual-intercourse-last-600-years
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52339/35-classy-slang-terms-naughty-bits-past-600-years

Might be useful for authors who write historical erotica, even if I suspect "Play at rumpscuttle and clapperdepouch" might distract from the erotic mood...

 

[TadOverdon]

"Shot twixt wind and water" is so bluntly observant.

 

[yowser]

Thanks for this. I especially liked: 'Aphrodisiacal tennis court'. Obviously a grassy one, tennis being a 'field sport' in the 17th century.

My favorite fountain for Victorian wordings is 'My Secret Life' where I was delighted to encounter words like 'quim' and 'pego' and archaic French terms such as 'minette' and 'gamahuche'.

 

[TadOverdon]

First encountered "quim" in The Pearl...the Victorian porn journal of course, not the Steinbeck novella. Charming word.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

"One day in the canyon,
No pants on her quim,
A rattlesnake saw her
And flung himself in.
Charlotte the Harlot
Gave cowboys the frights:
The only vagina
That rattles and bites."

from Charlotte the Harlot, American Cowboy Song.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

In James Joyce's Ulysses, you will find breasts referred to in slang as "bubs." I presume it was the standard slang at the time, and likely the etymological basis of modern "boobs."

 

[yowser]

In James Joyce's Ulysses, you will find breasts referred to in slang as "bubs." I presume it was the standard slang at the time, and likely the etymological basis of modern "boobs."

More likely it's just a contraction of 'bubby'. The OED's oldest definite citation is:

1690 T. D'Urfey New Poems 206 The Ladies here may without Scandal shew Face or white Bubbies, to each ogling Beau.

 

[AlexBailey]

'plowing the furrows'


If ye yearn fer olde English smut, look no further than Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales,' particularly in 'The Miller's Tale' and 'The Wife of Bath's Prologue.'

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Lots of 'queinte' in Chaucer IIRC. I like the Shakespearian references to 'country matters' and double meanings deriving from that.

 

[SamScribble]

Lots of 'queinte' in Chaucer IIRC. I like the Shakespearian references to 'country matters' and double meanings deriving from that.

And if my 6th Form English master was to be believed (all those years ago), Much Ado About Nothing was a play on Much Ado About No Thing. Men have 'a thing'; women don't. Women have 'a no-thing'.

 

[yowser]

And if my 6th Form English master was to be believed (all those years ago), Much Ado About Nothing was a play on Much Ado About No Thing. Men have 'a thing'; women don't. Women have 'a no-thing'.

Why would you ever doubt your 6th Form English master?

 

[PennameWombat]

The Whores of Yore Word of the Day collection is a similar resource.

The jelly-jewelry glistened on her tabby during the jumblefuck.