Shakespeare and Hunka Hunka Burning Love

Last week I ended the blog post by saying we never got to the words fornication or parturition or priapic or pudendum. With the anticipation building to a fever pitch, without further ado let's get back to what for some are prurient interests.

Fornication is the most commonly used of today's words. It is not just any sexual intercourse, it is specifically the voluntary sexual intercourse between two people who are not married to each other. The noun form is older than the verb form, fornicate. Fornication came to English in about 1300 from the Old French word fornicacion, which came from the Late Latin word fornicationem, both of which came from the Latin word for brothel, fornix. The verb came directly from the Latin in the 1550s, or it may just be a back-formation from fornication. 

Fornix is actually a word, but it is anatomical, referring to various arched formations. Huh? Well, fornix in Latin originally meant an arch or vaulted chamber or opening, or a covered way, and the supposition is that prostitutes in Rome used such architectural features as their place for solicitation. By the time of Juvenal and Horace fornix meant brothel,

Another interesting etymological possibility from fornix is that the arched meaning has some kinship to fornus, which is the Latin word for a brick oven with an arch or dome. It is the word from which we get furnace, which is any structure or apparatus in which heat is generated. So perhaps Elvis's song hunka hunka burning love has Latin roots.

Since fornix is an anatomical word, let's look at the words priapic and pudendum, which are also anatomical in nature. 

Priapic means something is like Priapus, who I am sure you remember as the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, and is the god who personified male reproductive power. Priapic, the adjective formed from his name, has been in use since 1786, perhaps as a more obscure word for the more commonly used word phallic, although priapic came into English three years before phallic. Priapism has been used in English since the 1620s, and refers to the "persistent erection of the penis." If it lasts more than four hours, call your doctor.

Phallic means pertaining to the phallus, and came from the Greek word phallikos, which came from the Greek word phallos, meaning penis, from which we get the noun form of phallic, phallus. Phallus has been used in English since the early 1600s, and is defined as "an image of the male reproductive organ." The Greek word for whale is phalle. I'm not sure there is a connection, I'm just saying.... Since 1924 phallus has been used not just of an image, but of the penis itself. Phallic symbol has been used in English since 1809. 

In case this post makes you uncomfortable, you might be interested to know that the word pudendum, which refers to external genital organs, comes from the Latin word pudendum which literally translated is "thing to be ashamed of." It has been used in English since the late 1300s, and while originally it would refer to either male or female genitals it now primarily refers to female genitalia, specifically the vulva. 

And we're out of space, so parturition, parturient, and pare will have to wait until next week. Paring the post here may be, as Shakespeare wrote, "the most unkindest cut of all."