an arse by any other name
I took advantage of the sunny weather this weekend to do a marathon gardening session. I had a fantastic time getting my hands dirty and communing with nature, but when I got to work this morning I realised that my sunny pastime had its price. After limping to the office kitchen and back I whined at D. on IRC, "God, my legs and ass are totally seizing up."
"Ass?" he asked. "Your donkey?" I couldn't see the raised eyebrow, but I could sense it. I found myself the recipient of a good-natured cyber-spanking (on the arse, naturally) for using Americanisms. "You've been reading too much Yank porn, wench."
The thing is that it's not a word I usually use. And I realised, when I thought about it, that for me ass is an entirely sexless word. If I'm talking spanking, I'll say arse, or bottom, or bum, or something more descriptive. If my gluts are throbbing after a workout, I'll say ass or butt. The American slang words appeal less to my traditionally-English spanking aesthetic, so I tend to avoid them in erotic contexts. But they're great for whinging. Complaining that my backside ached from hunkering down over my planter beds all afternoon sounds terribly stuffy; likewise with the other old-fashioned English words - such as behind, rear or rump. (Although I don't think it's possible to use the word "rump" without sounding like a stereotypical British Colonel, mustaches and all.) If I'm whining about my lack of physical fitness, the casual words fit best.
When I explained this to D., he was surprised that a throbbing bum was a sexless thing for me. "Aching thigh muscles from shagging don't make you grin?" he asked.
I pondered. "They can be satisfying, but they're not hot per se." When I thought about it, I remembered that I hadn't found my aching muscles after the Pain4Fem or SM Circus shoots sexy either. I was proud of what I'd endured, but the actual throbbing in my muscles just made me feel sorry for myself. Even if the reason for muscle pain is hot, the ache itself isn't something I fetishize - not in the same way that welts from the previous night's caning will make me tingle. Which is kind of odd, when you think about it - but whoever said masochism was rational. ;)
How about you? Do you use different words for your, or other people's, bums depending on the context? Are your preferred words different from mine? The English language has a ridiculous number of words for the posterior - which ones do you like best?
Arse.. but it depends on the circs. Bum is too schoolboy, rear is a bit closet, backside is nice (just think about front-side), behind is medical, ass is a reminder of bottom in Shakespeare... or American as you say, but arse, arse is great. Getting it on the arse... up the arse.... there's a slow lingering quality to the word. To misquote Belloc ... "Like many of the upper class, he loved the sight of beaten arse". Only works if you pronounce our a's long. Sounds wonderful in liverpudlian too...'she fell raite on er airse'. Thats conclusive then I think.
ReplyDeleteAlways had a soft spot for "Back Side" don't know why. The one I use the most though is "Hide" (usually as "My old hide" for me) but although this this is usually applied to spanking as "Tan your hide" and is usually used to describe the posterior, I always think of "My hide" as the back of me from shoulder to ankle, most of which is thrashable, one way or another.
ReplyDeletePrefectdt
Anonymous - Oooh, your comment has got me all shivery. Especially this bit: up the arse.... there's a slow lingering quality to the word. I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteFor me, arse has a penetrative quality; I say/hear up the arse more with reference to anal sex than I do on the arse with reference to spanking. Which I think is why I didn't use it on this occasion; it was my gluteus that was hurting, not somewhere more intimate. But yes, it is indeed a brilliant and evocative word in all its guises.
Prefectdt - wow, another comment that's got me tingly! This discussion was a good idea :) I think your use of the word is wonderfully expressive, but it's a bit too self-effacing for my liking; I wouldn't want to refer to anyone else's "hide" except in consensual roleplay, and I have a fond relationship with my bottom, so I don't see the need to refer to it as old or leathery in the usual course of things. (Although I can sort of see that you're using the word in a fond way as well; but I think our relationship with our bodies is qualitatively different, if that's not too imposing a guess?)
"Tan your hide" is a fantastic phrase though.
Top marks for the comments so far! Who else can turn me on just by listing their favourite synonyms? *grin*
When I was a child innocently writing my own spanking porn, I usually used the word "backside." It just seemed like the sort of word only an authority figure would use. There's something almost stern about it.
ReplyDeleteAs for "arse," well, I'm American and I can't say that without giggling and thinking of Eliza Doolittle. ; )
When either of the words "backside" or "behind" is preceded by "bare", that does it for me.
ReplyDeleteThat noun-phrase has resonance. It brings to mind so many episodes, fictional and real, where an authority figure wants to make it known that serious punishment is imminent. The nouns are euphemisms, of course, but the use of either a coarse equivalent, or a more juvenile one, would diminish the punisher's authority. Don't you think so?
It is odd that certain words are forbidden in polite society. When did it start? Perhaps there has always been a tendency to look down on the people from the next village. "We" do not say such things; "they" say them, not because they are evil, but merely because they know no better.
It's also odd how quickly words can acquire new meanings. How did "bum" and "fanny" come to mean such different things in Britain and America?
JamesM
I quite like the description of the buttocks as 'nates' that you occasionally get in spanking fiction; ie. 'he continued relentlessly to thrash the belt against her wounded nates.' Where the hell the term comes from I've no idea and can't be arsed (no pun intended) to google it.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm not sure whether this term counts as it describes the bottom cheeks individually rather than as a collective noun; as it were. What do you think?
I always say ass when I want to be nasty and bum when I want to nice. I had a cousin who called it 'coolie' which I thought was odd.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, Pandora. I'm from the U.S. and find the British slang for bottom - particularly bum or arse - very non-sexual.
ReplyDeleteI find the most enjoyable terms, as a spanko, are the ones that are the most humiliating - bottom, rear, behind - the ones that might make the person about to be spanked feel like a naughty child, even if she's an adult who's been paying her own bills for years.
Never much cared for the word "ass" either - it has it's uses, but not in the spanking scene, IMO.
I think the simple term "bare bottom" sends a tingle thru most American spankos, if not all of us. But I could be wrong - people can be so different.
Best - JH
Awesome responses, people! Thankyou so much for taking the time to answer my question.
ReplyDeletegraham - ooh, I was hoping you'd reply to this, I really enjoyed your writing on words and fetish.
So many people go for the sexless words in their fantasies that I'm now wondering why I didn't. I was more thinking about the words I use now, when my appreciation of spanking is obviously sexual, but I can't actually remember what words I used to use. Spanking, cane, whipped, thrashed, hiding - did I fetishise a word for bottom? All I can think of now are the verbs and the implements.
(You do realise that when I meet you I'm going to have to say ARSE as many times as I can just to make you giggle. Even if it'll make me feel like Father Jack.)
JamesM - if you're putting these words into a disciplinarian's mouth, then yes, absolutely; I was more talking about my own writing, where I don't have the same incentive to sound sexless.
I think political history and conquest has a lot to do with the socialisation of words. Look at the divide between Latin and AngloSaxon derivatives in English - whenever there are two roots with the same meaning, the Latin one sounds more formal, more polite, more educated, and the Anglo-Saxon one sounds more coarse and informal.
I have no idea about "fanny" though! Except as an Enid Blyton fan, for years I only knew it as a female name...
Paul H - mm, "nates" has a deliciously old-fashioned yet lusty ring to it. It's always conjured an image of a particularly pert pair of buttocks. There's a line from a play I was in at college, but I can't remember the title for the life of me - "Are they round, like apples, or slightly pointed, like pears?" I think it referred to breasts, but nates definitely sound pear-like to me.
Oh, and I reckon it's a collective noun - I don't think the word makes sense in the singular.
Champagne and Benzedrine - why thankyou! and hello! It's nice to make your acquaintance :)
I agree that "arse" sounds dirtier than "ass". I can see that if you're talking to an American, talking to her (or him) about their "ass" would make sense. For me, it would feel pretentious and silly. I feel a bit silly saying "arse" as well, but my boyfriends telling me what they're going to do to my arse is the most delicious thing in the world. I have no truck with all of that "I'm going to spank your naughty bottom" nonsense. I'm an adult, with a big curvy fuckable arse, and I love to be reminded of it :)
jp1701 - coolie! I've never heard that before either. So in a sexual context, what counts as "nasty" and what counts as "nice"?
JHThree - Oh cool! So our use of the words is reversed, in the sense that the other cultures' words are nonsexual? That's so interesting!
"Bare bottom" is a classic. You can't go far wrong with it. It's a cliche, but even so, it still gets a tingle.
I agree with the view that an Ass is a Donkey. This side of the Atlantic, the word is Arse. However, your question started in the context of describing post gardening muscle ache to office colleagues - Bum is probably safest, slightly racy but could not be construed by the PC police as sexist harassment.
ReplyDeleteMaster Retep