Originally posted by Aurelius
Great thread, not least because the Canadians and the Americans can probably unite (for a change) against the Brits/Australians.

I'd like to propose bum as a great British word, so soft and curvy and yummy. I can't understand why North Americans have a problem with it. To a British reader it sounds far better than butt or buttocks.

Just for the linguists, both words are Middle English (ie pre 14th century.)

My opinion...
Engorged manhood. NO
Knickers. OK
Suckled, Suckling. OK I guess
Globes (meaning breasts) NO!!
Twat. GOD NO!
Gosh, we colonists have strayed rather far afield, I fear. I don't care for "bum", or "arse" (or "ass", much). Nor "knickers", nor "suckling". I especially don't like the word "bubbies" (breasts) which one encounters in a lot of Victorian (or perhaps faux-Victorian) erotica.

I'm sure I use the term "globes", um, ex-orb-itantly, usually as part of a compound word. I probably use the word "globes" more often than GHWB uses the word "terrorist". Love-globes, girl-globes, lust-globes, pleasure-globes, bottom-globes, nether-globes.

Aurelius, surely we have nothing to fear from spheres themselves. ;-)


Were I not to use such euphemisms, I'm sure that the B - R - E - A - S and T keys on my keyboard would be worn to nubs within weeks.

If I ever think of a way to inject a few of Aurelius' high-stepping pony-girls into the steamy Shanghai of the 1880's, I'd probably use the word 'globetrotters'


But I'm with you on "twat", though -- I don't think I've ever used that word -- or ever will.

'Talya' is a fine name, Kitten, as are Tanya, Tatyana, Irina, Vera, Raisa etc. But names like Olga and Ludmilla seem 'heavier' somehow -- even though they, too, end in soft vowels. Maybe it's the hard consonants in the middle.

It's strange how the mind (using the term loosely in my case) works, isn't it?

Boccaccio