Anglo-Saxons,
especially Americans, are rather infamous in their awkwardness in talking about
sex. See the use of “white meat” in
American English to avoid using that erotic word breast. Nonetheless, like everybody else, it is a
part of life and must be mentioned from time to time.
Many different
words from various language roots are used to describe the various nuances of
sex. I won’t talk about slang and swear
words, which change over time. Among
standard terms, the most formal term is to have sex or copulate,
with share a bed with being slightly less direct and cold. Animals, by contrast, mate, couple
with, and promulgate the species.
On a more
positive emotional plane, people make love, make babies, get
to know each other in a biblical sense (to quote Woody Allen), or, for
legal purposes in the past, consummate the marriage. As an aside, many upper class Victorians
newlyweds were so ignorant that they never did.
For short term
purposes, young and not-so-young people sleep with each other
(eventually actually sleeping), make hay even if mattresses are made of
latex and springs, if you want to be crude about it, get to know each other
(grin added), and fornicate, a fancy term for the f-word.
To end on a humorist note, I quote George Carlin: “why is that you can say that you
pricked your finger, but not the other way around.”
The most innocent phrase can turn into a sexual double-entendre if
speakers so wish and understand. The
classic example is the line “what knockers” in Young Frankenstein. This human preoccupation
with sex has an everchanging influence on the words we use. Whether we stop using them, consider their
use carefully and or ensure their innocence, it affects our lexical choice.
In English, the word gay once only met happy and could be used without
second thought. The sexual identity
aspect of the word has all but eliminated use of its more original meaning. Likewise, the first
name Dick was common and even made famous (and infamous) by the cartoon
character Dick Tracy and the ex-President (Tricky) Dick Nixon, formally known
as Richard. Today, almost no parents
would give that name. Other words have mixed asexual and sexual application. On
an official form, the word sex is generally marked by two options: male
or female. Yet, even here, many forms are using the more neutral word gender
to avoid any connotation. In some parts of America, people ask whether you want
white meat, not the chicken breast, so as not to offend the more
sensitive. To maintain a more genteel atmosphere, the family feline is referred
to using two words, pussy cat, not only the first one. When society
requires correctness, people must exercise due care in choosing their words.
Hebrew also has its sexual innuendo. A בולבול [bulbul] is
a type of bird but every Israeli child knows that it can refer to the male sex organ. Fortunately, people very rarely actually talk
about the bird. There are two verbs in Hebrew that mean to finish: לסיים [lesayem] andלגמור [ligmor].
The latter also is descriptive in sex and, thus, is being used less and less in
normal conversation. An interesting example is the Hebrew verb לזרום [lezrom], which means to flow. In slang, in regards to a
woman, it means that she is easily convinced to have sex. Most of the time, no
interference occurs but occasionally people regret what they say.
This contextual ambiguity is highly fluid, often changing from
generation to generation. It is
impossible to know how the next generation will hint at their sexual activities
in public speech or whether the current linguo will still be relevant. Consider
that most of the puns in Shakespeare’s comedies are meaningless to speakers of
modern English without explanations. One generation’s giggle is another one’s
yawn and vice versa. Still, in some way, sex is lying somewhere in the
background of all language.