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Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk
What flower takes its name from the human testicle? Is your husband rantallion? Does your wife wear a merkin? What's a wittol, and why were they once drummed out of town while sitting backwards on a horse? Is sacofricosis a crime, a disease or an hors d'oeuvre? Morton roams through centuries of etymological lore to answer these and many other questions.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 17, 2013
By far the best book I have ever bought on a whim. Etymology is always fascinating, particularly when it comes to sexual language and taboo words in general.
Morton provides a brilliantly researched, detailed, and thorough dissemination of sex talk through the ages, providing not only the roots of the words themselves, but also the cultural changes that affected them.
For the most part he remains unbiased and objective, examining the words as they are. For some sections of the book this is difficult however, such as those pertaining to female genitalia, whose connotations are often at best passive for the woman, or at worst, downright misogynistic. Morton avoids delving too far into judgements on any front however, and clearly does his best to provide facts unaffected by his own judgements - particularly important and refreshing for a topic such as this.
I couldn't recommend this book more, though be aware that it is quite heavy going and very dense. By that I mean that there is a lot of information crammed into 370 pages, but the text itself is very readable and accessible. Probably best to break it up into sections, but definitely worth the effort.
Morton provides a brilliantly researched, detailed, and thorough dissemination of sex talk through the ages, providing not only the roots of the words themselves, but also the cultural changes that affected them.
For the most part he remains unbiased and objective, examining the words as they are. For some sections of the book this is difficult however, such as those pertaining to female genitalia, whose connotations are often at best passive for the woman, or at worst, downright misogynistic. Morton avoids delving too far into judgements on any front however, and clearly does his best to provide facts unaffected by his own judgements - particularly important and refreshing for a topic such as this.
I couldn't recommend this book more, though be aware that it is quite heavy going and very dense. By that I mean that there is a lot of information crammed into 370 pages, but the text itself is very readable and accessible. Probably best to break it up into sections, but definitely worth the effort.
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July 3, 2012“In the 1960s, police officers who specialized in apprehending prostitutes came to be known as the pussy posse.” (224-225).
Stuffed to the brim with etymologies of various sex-related terms, each chapter of Dirty Words focuses on a set of words—for example, words for sexual orientations or masturbation—and traces their adaptations through history. Morton suggests in the introduction to just read one chapter at a time, and I would certainly second this suggestion as every chapter has so much information in it, that reading more than two at a time might actually cause a headache. Given the amount of pure information compressed into only 363 pages, there is lots of rereading and reference potential for this book. The contents of this book are extremely intriguing, and make for fun random factoids. For a few pages, thirteen hundred words for penis are listed, some notable ones being: Captain Picard, giggle stick, pendulum, Prince Everhard of the Netherlands, purple-headed avenger, and 3-4-2-5.
Reading Morton’s writing is much like following a wandering path, as he often throws in etymological tangents. Overall, Morton tends to write things simply and makes the text rather accessible. While he occasionally does come across as condescending, this does not occur often enough that it significantly detracts from the reading experience. Unfortunately there is no index, so looking up a particular word can be time-consuming.
If you’re curious about the variety of things “tail” can describe, how certain slang terms came to refer to seemingly nonsensical definitions, or simply want to get more bawdy humor out of Shakespeare, this is your book!
Stuffed to the brim with etymologies of various sex-related terms, each chapter of Dirty Words focuses on a set of words—for example, words for sexual orientations or masturbation—and traces their adaptations through history. Morton suggests in the introduction to just read one chapter at a time, and I would certainly second this suggestion as every chapter has so much information in it, that reading more than two at a time might actually cause a headache. Given the amount of pure information compressed into only 363 pages, there is lots of rereading and reference potential for this book. The contents of this book are extremely intriguing, and make for fun random factoids. For a few pages, thirteen hundred words for penis are listed, some notable ones being: Captain Picard, giggle stick, pendulum, Prince Everhard of the Netherlands, purple-headed avenger, and 3-4-2-5.
Reading Morton’s writing is much like following a wandering path, as he often throws in etymological tangents. Overall, Morton tends to write things simply and makes the text rather accessible. While he occasionally does come across as condescending, this does not occur often enough that it significantly detracts from the reading experience. Unfortunately there is no index, so looking up a particular word can be time-consuming.
If you’re curious about the variety of things “tail” can describe, how certain slang terms came to refer to seemingly nonsensical definitions, or simply want to get more bawdy humor out of Shakespeare, this is your book!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews