>
> Ned have you found a dictionary of terms related to this topic? Twould be a
> hoot
> to have a few terms defined for us.
>
there was some journal called "maledicta" (or something similar) at one time -
even published a dictionary of swear-words from around the world - i just
remember that if you said the equivilent of "your mother's ears" in some african
language, you were better be good at either fighting or running -
i had always meant to parody that bit of anthropological myth which
stated that "eskimoes have over 60 different words for snow, because it is very
important to them" - which is based on a misreading of amundsen or one of the
other arctic explorers: the 60 different words came from almost just as many
dialects...
anyway: i wanted to do the same thing for english words for shit, and
the various euphemisms, medical jargon, hunters' specialist words (the use of
the word "fewmets" in "the pope's rhinoceros" being a deliberate reference to
"the sword in the stone"), etc.
think i had over 60 at one time - also had a great list of dutch
sex-euphemisms at one time -
geoff carver
http://home.t-online.de/home/gcarver/[log in to unmask]