Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Tasteful Tuesday: Let's (Not)Talk about Sex.

eu·phe·mism
  (yōō'fə-mĭz'əm)   
n.  The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive: "Euphemisms such as 'slumber room' . . . abound in the funeral business" (Jessica Mitford).
[Greek euphēmismos, from euphēmizein, to use auspicious words, from euphēmiā, use of auspicious words : eu-, eu- + phēmē, speech; see bhā-2 in Indo-European roots.]
eu'phe·mist n., eu'phe·mis'tic (-mĭs'tĭk) adj., eu'phe·mis'ti·cal·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Since my "theme" this week is writing love and sex scenes, I thought I'd avoid the topic by listing a bunch of euphemisms for naughty bits. In fact, I'm going to avoid it completely by posting some links.

an excessively long (no pun intended) list for manly bits

This site is proof that men spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about themselves and...themselves. Even my three-year-old is obsessed. He'd talk about it all the time, if I let him. He'd tell everyone all about it. He'd even be proud to show it off.

a very sad and short list of words for girly bits

This site proves that women have other things on their minds besides their nether parts.

However, this list is quite large, and--it's maintained by a man who thinks about other things besides...his thing:

a well-rounded list for bouncy bits

Goodness. I'm feeling flushed. I think I need to go lie down...

2 comments:

  1. LOL - nice. So these are lists of words to avoid then, right? ;-)

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  2. Um...I dunno. Personally, I'm looking forward to using "chesticals" in my current w.i.p.

    I guess using something like "He poised his lady dagger at the entrance to her tool shed and readied to strike" would be a bit purple. Or something...

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