alan@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Alan Algustyniak) (10/30/84)
>All right, you amateur etymologists. Why the slang "horny" meaning >"sexually excited" or "sexually excitable"? Has it got anything to >do with the ancient and widespread "horned" meaning "cuckolded"? >And where did that come from? Any good stories for these? > I'd be interested to know how the word 'randy' got to mean the same thing.
gam@amdahl.UUCP (Gordon A. Moffett) (10/30/84)
> All right, you amateur etymologists. Why the slang "horny" meaning > "sexually excited" or "sexually excitable"? Has it got anything to > do with the ancient and widespread "horned" meaning "cuckolded"? > And where did that come from? Any good stories for these? > > Alan Filipski > {allegra | ihnp4 } ! sftig ! mot ! al Stewart Berg Flexner says "horny" previously meant "angry" as of 1834, but by 1899 its meaning as "sexually excited" completely replaced the older usage. He also notes that "hot" also meant angry as of 1846, but by the 1920s also meant sexually excited. He says "this seems to imply a subconsciou relation between sexual passion and anger." I don't agree with this; sexual excitement does literally make one hot. Or warmer, anyway. I recall reading about the origin of "horny" in one of William Safire's columns but it is not in any of his latest books on language. -- "That's ``Capitalist Lackeys of the Imperialist Dogs Cookbook Offer, Box 9, Hellmouth CA 92240''..." Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,nsc}!amdahl!gam [ This is just me talking. ]
David Smallberg <das@ucla-cs.ARPA> <das> (10/31/84)
...
Picture a sexually aroused man. Now, where do you think the word "horny"
comes from?
BTW, I forget where, but Shakespeare has a few jokes about men's horns (not
in the sense of cuckolds'). A good concordance should locate them.
-- David Smallberg, das@ucla-cs.ARPA, {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!dasmarcus@pyuxt.UUCP (M. G. Hand) (10/31/84)
Horny comes from "having a horn" which is a (rather obvious) metaphor for an erect penis. Subsequently the word has become corrupted to refer to anyone who feels randy. Now, can anyone tell me where that comes form? marcus hand
al@mot.UUCP (Al Filipski) (11/03/84)
--to the (mythical?) line-eater--
All right, you amateur etymologists. Why the slang "horny" meaning
"sexually excited" or "sexually excitable"? Has it got anything to
do with the ancient and widespread "horned" meaning "cuckolded"?
And where did that come from? Any good stories for these?
Alan Filipski
Motorola Microsystems,
Tempe, AZ USA
{allegra | ihnp4 } ! sftig ! mot ! alrh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (11/05/84)
>> All right, you amateur etymologists. Why the >> slang "horny" meaning "sexually excited" or >> "sexually excitable"? Has it got anything to do >> with the ancient and widespread "horned" meaning >> "cuckolded"? And where did that come from? Any >> good stories for these? > I'd be interested to know how the word 'randy' got > to mean the same thing. I'd like to know, too, since Randy is the logical dimunitive of my name, though most people at MIT now call me Random (I've never understood why MIT people are so obsessed with the concept of Randomness, but that would be another article). It's really difficult to go through life introducing like this: "Hi, I'm 'Randy'." "Okay, so what's your name?" And so on. -- Randwulf (Randy Haskins); Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh