The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #58526 Message #930684
Posted By: curmudgeon
10-Apr-03 - 05:46 PM
Thread Name: Watered Down Shanties
Subject: RE: Waterd Down Shanties
Eureka! The tome was where it was supposed to be, but with a black spine that I recalled as being red. It is: Mrs. Grundy - Studies in English Prudery, Peter Fryer, London House and Maxwell, NY, 1964, Library of Congress # 64-14627.
Sadly, it did not have the vast amount of material that I remembered, but more than one might find elsewhere, aside from the 'Slang of Venery" cited there which includes some 600 terms for 'penis.' This book, by anon. must be quite rare; only three direct references in Google, and no listing at bookfinder.com.
I did, during a very cursory look, discover the the word "snatch" as cited by Charley Noble - Legman - Hugill is of late 19th C. derivation, and IMO is not all too likely to be of the antiquity one associates with that song. However, substitute quim, notch, purse, or gash, and one will be less anachronistic.