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Minx shagathon ahoy!

Posted by Lewis on May 02, 2003

In Reply to: Rochelle Rochelle posted by Word Camel on April 28, 2003

: : : : : Does anyone know why we use the saying "he/she would shag like a minx"?

: : : : : Minx is another name for the Mink (ala mink coat), but Im not sure whats so special about their mating habits to liken them to someone who would be "horny" in bed. The male minx mates with several females in the mating season, so maybe thats why.

: : : :
: : : : : Any ideas?

: : : : 'Minx' has nothing to do with 'minks'. It's just a word for a special sort of woman, not neccessarily bad or of bad habits, but perhaps a bit flirtaceous; saucy. There used to be a car called a 'Hillman Minx'.
: : : : 'Shag', for our US cousins, is UK English for sexual intercourse and not, as in the US, for a 'date'!

: : : James is entirely right. The expression is "to **** like a mink" (insert your preferred four letter vulgarism for the sexual act, since there are several variants of the phrase). I imagine that the original poster may also be right in his guess that minks are sexually voracious, thus giving rise to the expression. I wonder if the OP's confusion regarding "minx" arose because he heard the phrase used in the plural - "they were shagging like minks"?

: : Since we're on the subject, a long-running UK children's comic called The Beano features a recurrent child character called Minnie The Minx. Minnie is Scottish, mischievous and impudent, but needless to say absolutely not flirtatious, though the more normal usage of "minx" would be applied to a flirty woman.

: For some reason I had it in my head that this was the feminine of mink - sort of like vixen is for fox. But no. I have looked it up and discovered that it is as follows:

: \Minx\, n. [Prob. of Low German origin; cf. LG. minsk wench, jade, hussy, D. mensch; prop. the same word as D. & G. mensch man, human being, OHG. mennisco, AS. mennisc, fr. man. See Man.]

: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

: Rochelle Rochelle ("The tale of a young girl's strange erotic journey from Milan to Minsk") from Seinfeld would probably qualify.

"Minx" is not at all equivalent to "foxy" - to call a woman/girl a minx is to imply that they are devious, troublesome and potentially vicious - the usual expression as I have heard it is along the lines of "she's a little minx, that one" - funnily enough, it is primarily a woman's word for another woman, rather than a man's.

Minnie the Minx was a small and troublesome person. I don't suppose she did much shagging.

BTW - our American cousins - are you not being a trifle presumptuous to call a date a "shag" - when I was a teenager, there would have been much confusion if we mixed those usages. If a date is indeed a shag, it turns out I've "shagged" many more women than I realised, some below the legal age of consent at the time - not a lawful pursuit and inclined to annoy their parents. OK so I'll be complaining that we should be allowed to be happy and gay without being homosexual next...

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