Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!think!mit-eddie!barmar
From: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Taboo words
Message-ID: <757@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Dec-85 17:37:58 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.757
Posted: Sun Dec 15 17:37:58 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Dec-85 05:10:46 EST
References: <578@unc.unc.UUCP> <464@mit-eddie.UUCP> <603@osiris.UUCP> <112@mtuni.UUCP>
Reply-To: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 13

In article <112@mtuni.UUCP> mgh@mtuni.UUCP (Marcus Hand) writes:
>Hmm, my grandmother would sometimes refer to people "fornicating on the
>doorstep" or admonish someone to "Stop fornicating around!"
>Obviously what she meant was "fooling around" or "mucking about."
>BTW she wasn't the only source of this strange usage -- it seems to
>have been quite common early this century all over England.

"Oh, fornicate the penguin!" -- Monty Python (from the "Penguin on the
Telly" sketch).
-- 
    Barry Margolin
    ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
    UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar