🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov20.103115.23839@news.unige.ch>, afzal@divsun.unige.ch (Afzal Ballim) writes:
> According to [1, pp. 161]:
> 
> ``The degree of synonymy (or near synonymy) in the vocabulary for genitalia
> and copulation has no parallel elsewhere in the English lexicon -- except in
> the terms for `whore.' There are reportedly more than 1,200 terms for `vagina'
> and more than 1,000 for `penis' (with or without testicles), 800 for
> copulation, and 2,000 for whore...'

This is fascinating, but I think it actually supports my position. There
may be 1,000 words for 'penis' in the OED (really???): but in a given
speech community at a given time, I would bet that there around five.
Perhaps we could have a poll of the net (no, just joking!). Of course,
just having approximately the same reference is not enough for synonymy -
and I would again claim that in most cases the *usage* of the words will
differ. Also, these words often have an expletive function that one could
argue lacks semantic content completely....

Philip Swann