Anatomy and the English Language

No doubt it is American. Americans can't spell. They even spell "tap" as "faucet".

Seriously, there is a very good reason why it should be, as the Concise Oxford Dictionary lays down, "worshipping" - to make clear that it's wor-shipping and not wor-shyping (as in sniping, which is not the same as snipping).

One of the reasons there was such flowery language applied to body parts was that using the real names for those parts could get your book banned.

Not that long ago I came across a book published in the early 70s where four letters words were four dashes. As in:
"---- you!"

And that's how books used to be written. Sometimes they gave you the first letter (P---, f---, c---) but even having dashes could be seen as explicit language. As in 'ban that dirty book' explicit.

Sure, we can write out four letters words and refer to body parts by their correct names, but there's that long literary tradition of using flowery language that influences us today.

Goodgulf

I'll go with 'worshiping.' The rule I've always followed, and is likely the one enforced by Miss Thrashbottom, is to double that final consonant before adding -ing onto a multi-syllabic word with a vowel only when the last syllable of the word is accented. Hence, controlling, interring and beginning, but worshiping, focusing and entering. I'm sure that anyone who wants to spend the time can find commonly-accepted exceptions. In fact, 'worshiping' and 'worshipping' are both accepted as correct by my Microsoft Word spellchecker.

Spell-checkers are poor authority compared to the OED and its shorter version! The rule I'd advance depends on whether there is a risk of the vowel being mispronounced as long instead of short, which is hardly the case with entering. However, it may well be that this is a case of American usage beginning to be accepted in the U.K.. "Focusing", for example, was commonly spelt "focussing" in the U.K., but under the influence of spell-checkers, this is dying out.

Years ago, I was reading a romance novel, and at one point, I had to stop, go back to the previous chapter, and reread one scene before I realized that the heroine had just given the hero a blowjob. The phrase the writer had used was, "After a deep, personal kiss that was flavored with the very essence of him . . . " The writer was being so vague about it that it didn't fully register until I had gone about four or five pages, and as I said, was already in the next chapter.

I hope that the hero knew what kind of kiss he had been given!

Now are we sure that is not "blowjobb"?

If ever you need a little 'pick me up', have a read at a badly written sex scene - it's guaranteed to get you rolling around laughing and it costs far less than a single malt

"His hands pulled her dress off her shoulders and he buried his face in her neck, then her hair, scooping up between her legs. He pulled down her brassiere, cupping her breasts, sighing in bliss. 'The blue veins are divine,' he whispered. "


You have to agree that is very droll! Are we taking boobs here, or a lump of old cheese ...?

This, plus the extract above are both nominations from the annual Bad Sex Award.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/25/bad-sex-award-shortlist

"Sebastian was lying across his bed with the blinds drawn wearing nothing but a towel, hands lazily laced behind his head as he watched the cricket on a small flickering television screen in the corner. His chest was the size of a South American country. A slanting tongue of lamplight lit up his lap and I could see the outline of his large appendage.

I kissed his mouth ravenously, devouring his neck, earlobes, chest. He broke free with muscular ease, unhooked my bra with composed expertise, found my nipple and flicked his tongue back and forth until it went hard. His towel fell away. Sebastian's erect member was so big I mistook it for some sort of monument in the centre of a town. I almost started directing traffic around it."


Some people have all the fun. I wonder if the Sebastian referred to here is our very own LSF 'member' Sebastian?

... now, where did I put my Traffic Warden outfit ....?