That word has no right to exist anyway, like "shag", which was during my
childhood (think mid-40s to late 50s, childhood went on forever in those
days) the most uncouth sniggery expression around. I am an unregenerate
snob about words for sexual congress. German has "bumsen", rather like
"bonk" - what they do in Bavarian soft pornos with dirndls - and
"vögeln", which is something determinedly guiltless & sportive you do by
rotation in a commune, until they got pc in the 70s & preferred
non-penetrative frotting. I like "screw", my wife said it with a
delightful Hampshire accent & the Berryman story is great if one
imagines him wheezing that line out in the cinema during the performance
of *Camelot*. The common French word is the word I learnt at school for
"kiss", "baiser", so you can't say "Küss die Hand, Madame" with a simple
verb & the German word for "meringue" is a no-no at the pâtisserie: "I
want a fuck madame." My partner said it some years back now & got a
funny look.
Late night musings of a DOM.
mj
Joanna Boulter wrote:
> Oh, for heaven's sake, you *did* mean it!
>
> My sister was once accosted in a London street by a man who said
> merely - 'Bonk'. She said -'I beg your pardon?' and he said it again.
> In the end she twigged that he might be trying for 'bank' with a
> French accent, which turned out to be the case. I've always told my
> kids that the first words you should learn in any language are
> 'please' and 'thank you'!
>
> joanna
>
>> Martin wrote:
>
>
>> I said half Koaxx (my little joke, work it out) for French; I don't
>> consider my French to be good enough - I can't translate litrachur
>> into it, for instance, and I'm lost when they gabble. Funnily enough,
>> I seem to understand Swiss German (Schwyzerdütsch) better than
>> Germans, who get it subtitled on TV even when a clearspoken academic
>> is talking - while I can understand very little spoken by drunken
>> maudlin roughs from Glasgow; I lived next to one once in council
>> housing (municipal lowrent slums for the benefit of our Yankee
>> friends) & he would beat up his wife all night when he got back from
>> the pub. 'Twas no human tongue that issued forth from that benighted
>> hovel.
>> mj
>
>
--
Flow My Tears is a novel of nonstop intrigue set sometime in the future of an alternate reality. It has a great ending and really makes you think about life and similar things. - Online review by Keith.
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