Well then, they all have horns... hmmm, and must be where that descriptive "horny" originates.
I think horny comes from the slang for an erect penis.
he he, I also added the grin ;-)
Sigh, waaaah.
One day me is gonna be good at graphics then I'll show you!
Interesting link, Crave. I didn't know of that particular origin for the horns. It still doesn't explain why the condition of being cuckolded is known as...well...being cuckolded. Nor yet what it has to do with cuckoos. Methinks there is a whole world of subtle word-play here. Digressive, almost.
Well, thank heavens for that, or Deb would be on us again about being too consecutive in our thoughts.
Craven - I wondered about the Mona Lisa smile, but since I too have been practicing that since I was a youngster, and with much less success, I passed it by.
We need an entire new train....
MA,
The etymology is from cokewold (cokewald). I've got an inkling that Chaucer coined it.
[Middle English cokewald, from Anglo-Norman *cucuald, from cucu, the cuckoo, from Vulgar Latin *cucclus, from Latin cuclus.]
Word History: The allusion to the cuckoo on which the word cuckold is based may not be appreciated by those unfamiliar with the nesting habits of certain varieties of this bird. The female of some Old World cuckoos lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving them to be cared for by the resident nesters. This parasitic tendency has given the female bird a figurative reputation for unfaithfulness as well. Hence in Old French we find the word cucuault, composed of cocu, "cuckoo, cuckold," and the pejorative suffix -ald and used to designate a husband whose wife has wandered afield like the female cuckoo. An earlier assumed form of the Old French word was borrowed into Middle English by way of Anglo-Norman. Middle English cokewold, the ancestor of Modern English cuckold, is first recorded in a work written around 1250.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Piffka,
I reject the comparison to Mona, I learned it from a baby and it's my standard countenance.
Oh, my gosh. That's the best yet. Just what I wanted!! A quick view and then... what... did I really see that???
And you say you aren't so good at this.
<applause>
I'm not, that was my 3rd animation. Just you wait till you see what I'll do to deb's bunny in a tub picture if she continues to vex me.
Well it seems good to me, but I'll wait and see how you progress then.
There with the real etymology, confounding the joy of erroneous speculation. And here I was going to point out that studies have shown the sperm production increases in the human male in the absence of his mate, perhaps because some male gametes perform a xenospermicidal (I think I made that one up) function, in that they recognize sperm that are not of their ilk and destroy them. Hey, any edge. I kinda figured this might correspond to an increase in libido -- or horniness, if you please -- and so cuckolded male would exhibit his horn more often. Certainly (and more simply) he might fly the flag at inappropriate times more often if his wife's sexual favors were bestown exclusively on her illicit lover.
In fact, this still might play into it: realizing, suddenly, that cuckoos do not have horns (they're not owls, after all), and so an explication of the etymological origins of "cuckold" have no bearing on the transcultural notion that the cuckolded male is hornéd. So there you go.
And so I come a long way around to a perfectly obvious point. Thanks, folks, I'm here all week. And try the brisket, it's to die for!*
*"To die" being a Victorian euphemism for "to have an orgasm."
Magnificus, pd! Magnum peditum.
I'm not sure about all those Latin words, but it did sound good.
French pétard, from Old French, from peter, to break wind, from pet, a breaking of wind, from Latin pêditum, from neuter past participle of pêdere, to break wind.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition is licensed from Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
So when you say something peters out, you're likening it to the last sad remains of a hearty fart, eh? I somehow knew my flatulence was akin to a river flowing into a delta, one way or another. Nice to have it verified!
