by Maboo on Mon Jun 11, 2001 10:14 am
A little relevant quotation.... <P><CENTER>
"Then, owls and bats,
Cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister's moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry."
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From <i>Pippa Passes</i> (1841) by Robert Browning<P><i>"Browning had apparently somewhere come across the word twat - which meant precisely the same as it does now - but somehow took it to mean a piece of head gear for nuns. The verse became a source of twittering amusement for generations of schoolboys and a perennial embarrassment to their elders, but the word was never altered and Browning was allowed to live out his life in wholesome ignorance because no one could think of a suitably delicate way of explaining his mistake to him."</i>
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<B>Bill Byerson, Mother Tongue: The English Language, Penguin, 1990.</B> <P>Mablushing<P>------------------
<A HREF="http://blottostreet.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>Blotto Street</A> - It's better than getting drunk and sleeping around.<P>I am NOTHING to do with the <A HREF="http://www.fourtoontellers.com/" TARGET=_blank>FourToon Tellers</A>. It's SO frickin' unfair. But SOMETHING's going on. Yes, siree... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!