Birds
Posted by David FG on November 15, 2009 at 09:05
In Reply to: Birds posted by Victoria S Dennis on November 14, 2009 at 13:59:
: : Why are so many sexual euphemisms related to birds? Bird, tit, shag, booby, cock, chough, the list is long.
: I wouldn't call those euphemisms; rather the opposite! But the names of other animals are just as commonplace: bitch, foxy, wolf whistle, dogging, and so on. (VSD)
And then of course, there are 'the birds and the bees'.
A thought does occur to me: many (most?) people will never have seen a wild mammal mating (come to that, outside the farming community, most won't have seen a non-wild mammal mating) but everyone has seen pigeons, sparrows and so on thus engaged. Might this have given rise to a tradition that birds are particularly active in this area?
Though I believe the fact that a number of our cruder words for sexual activities and bodily parts are also the names of birds is more coincidence than anything else: for example, I believe 'tit' as in the bird species is not related to 'tit' as in breast.
DFG