Robert Peters wrote: >Being a native German >I instantly understood the phrase "mein Unterleib" to be a euphemism. >Beethoven wouldn't have been too shy to write things like "mein Magen" if >he really meant his abdomen. Not so much a euphemism as it is an example of synecdoche (a whole standing for a part). "Unterleib" might refer to "anything down there," from the bladder to the uterus (in a woman) to . . . well, you get the point. I think it's fair to say though that without more context the remark by itself offers no evidence Beethoven was referring to any specific organ. John Dalmas [log in to unmask]