Spanks vs. spankings

I used the newly infamous "ten spankings" in my story, Echo, just published. I grew up in Canada and had a friend whose mom threatened ten spankings for minor offenses. Of course, she meant ten swats or spanks or blows or slaps or smacks...all part of one spanking. It was likely a regional, perhaps even just a family colloquialism, but I found it endearing. I fondly remember the playful ten spankings her daughter and I received for climbing the apple tree. She actually counted out the spanks as she administered them. I remember thinking it was novel to know the exact number that were coming, a rarity to me. Ten spankings, probably not grammatically correct, but unique.

My figuring:

Cane strokes or swipes
Tawse licks
Whip lashes or cracks
Slipper smacks (also for a ruler or wooden spoon)
Paddle swats or whacks

For a spanking by hand, "Palm slaps," I would say.

The term spank would apply to an impact to the posterior by a rigid or semi-rigid implement, including an open hand. A continued series of spanks would be called a spanking, of course.

I did once know a young lady whom I gave a playful birthday spanking to, who afterward referred to each individual spank (palm to the seat of her slacks) as a "spanking."

I didn't correct her on that terminology, however she's the only person I've ever heard employ it... --C.K.

I personally use stroke or stripe for the description of a caning or a ruler or a riding crop. For a tawse I suppose I use more descriptive words like 'thwhack' and try to describe the sound of it, I try not to be someone who uses 'spank, spank, spank' in my fiction but that's just me - my first reason for writing is for me - so I write the way I write for my own benefit . As is said
'You do you.'
I suppose another way to describe a spanking is talking about impacts and the effect on the area being spanked.

My last point is just to say that growing up in working class SE London i was asked 'if i wanted a smack?' or 'you're you going the right way about getting a smack'. Also in the 70's smacks were sometimes called 'slaps' eg getting your legs slapped - my mother's favourite punishment for me. i am tall and have been since i was 11 so i suppose there was just a lot of thigh to slap!


I suppose smack could be a noun a smack or a verb (adverb?- i don't know ) to smack or getting a smacking/ more usual where i grew up for it to be talked about getting your bottom smacked or a smacked bum.

At times i really struggle to find ways to describe spanking scenes - see above.

anyway bfn
pim

PS i still live in England

PPS I forgot about getting the tease being talked about getting belted or getting the strap, to describe getting chastised with a belt, tawse, strop, leather reins i have heard f used. As an adult i must admit to getting the strap a few times for breaking the rules in the very early days of me and Himself - over 18 years now. After a short while we worked out that me having rules was a bad idea, without them i didn't do any of the 'offences' i did when i had the rules in place.!

There are a lot of different terms used. I had a Scottish friend who used to say that when she was a kid her mother would ‘skelp’ her with the wooden spoon.

Using "spankings" instead of "spanks" to refer to individual swats is just an error, like the people who say "could of" instead of "could have", or "expresso" instead of "espresso" (and from what I can tell, it's not a regional thing).

I would also note that people who are not in the spanko community are more likely to make the error, because they don't know the terminology. For similar reasons, I quite often hear non-spankos mix up masochist and sadist (saying things like "she likes feeling pain, she's such a sadist").

"Could of" and "could have" invariably come out as "coulda" in colloquial English anyway just like "woulda" and "shoulda".

I don’t consider myself a Grammar Nazi but I do have a few pet hates. My particular bête noire is the pluralising of the word priority.

“The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality.”
~ Greg McKeown Essentialism

And charming in a quirky way as well. (And yes, yours was the story I was referring to, but believe me, it was not the first time I heard that phrasing used and probably won't be the last. )

..............................."my partner turns my knees to jelly because he's so DOMINATE"?

Ah, well, IRREGARDLESS, even though I use "spanks", I do find it charming when someone says "spankings".

Not an adverb - that would probably be 'smackly'...

A common simile to describe someone blushing with anger or embarrassment Is: "she had a face like a smacked arse"


You'd be surprised how often you hear "could OV" in England, the speaker almost deliberately (if unwittingly) emphasising the mistake. It's an understandable confusion: in "could've (or should've or would've)" the 've sounds exactly the same as the of in "Bunch of... tired of... Queen of... etc" But it's still a sad indictment of the quality of English teaching in our schools (said he).

Hey there, CK!

Cane----- isn't 'cut' also popular? Or didn't make the cut?
tawse --I like licks. Luke Luck likes licks. Luke's duck likes licks Luke's tawse leaves.
Whip------lash for sure, LaRue.
Slipper Smacks-----"part of a complete breakfast"
Paddle-----swats or whacks that pack a wallop

Others? stingers, burners, scorchers? Nickki (featured in my recently posted story, BTW) likes to use fire imagery and uses "lit" or "it up" frequently. So does Rosa. When her kids were still at home and thought they overheard a spanking, she would confirm their suspicious inquiries by assuring them that "yep, his ass is on fire!"