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Discussing Uganda

Posted by ESC on September 03, 2002

In Reply to: Ugandan Discussion posted by Marmota monax on September 03, 2002

: : Private Eye uses the expression "Ugandan discussions" or something similar as a euphemism for illicit sex. I know the expression comes from an incident where someone (politician?) was caught with his secretary not quite in flagrante, but passed off the incident saying they were merely discussing Uganda. Who were the protaganists?

: Here's a link to a usenet post citing Nigel Rees's "Phrases & Sayings", and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

: Sadly, I only have access to the 19th century edition of Brewer, so I can't verify either reference.

DISCUSS UGANDA - "vb. British. to have sex. A euphemism coined in the 1970s by the British satirical magazine 'Private Eye.' It has become one of the magazine's long-running jokes and is said to stem from a party at which a female journalist was alleged to have explained an upstairs sexual encounter by saying 'We were discussing Uganda.' (Idi Amin's regime was in the news at the time.) The term 'Uganda Affairs' is also derived from this source." From the "Dictionary of Contemporary Slang" by Tony Thorne (Pantheon Books, New York, 1990).

Another source says: DISCUSSING UGANDA -"Fornicating. This is a current British euphemism." From the "Wordsworth Book of Euphemism" by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth Editions, Hertfordshire, 1995)

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