Over the millennia, English sprouted, grew, and then grew some more. The blossoms we call words formed, bloomed, and then died out of favor. It’s not unusual though, for those words to be reborn and sometimes they don’t mean what they once did. That’s especially true for words relating to the favorite pastime of humans, that being sex. Let’s take a look at how we got where we are, and then some of the more common words used in erotic stories.
The English language has its roots planted firmly in the soil of many different cultures and locations. The first shoots of what we now know as “English” were planted by the first settlers of what was then not an island, but a land mass that up until about fourteen thousand years ago included what is now Ireland. It was connected to Denmark and The Netherlands by a low, marshy land bridge up until about eight thousand years ago. Over this land bridge came the people who settled what was to become the British Isles, and they brought their languages with them. Those languages were stirred together and started the stew that would become English.
Over the centuries, other main ingredients as well as a lot of spices were added to this word stew. By 122 AD, the Roman Army had pushed far into what they named “Britannia” and the Emperor Hadrian ordered the building of a wall to keep out the Picts from the northern parts of the island. Under the emperor Antonius Pius, the Roman Army pushed that border further north and constructed The Antonine Wall. Because the Roman Army was in residence for so many years, the language of the native people absorbed a lot of Latin into the mix.
After the Roman Empire collapsed, the island, still known as Britannia, became the target of Germanic peoples. Over the years, it was invaded by the Angles, the Saxons, and by the Jutes. They too added their language to what was becoming English, including what would become the name of part of it – “Englalonde” which meant “land of the Angles”. “Englalonde” later became “Englaland” and then finally “England”.
Other parts of the language came from peoples already in the British Isles. At about the same time as the Anglo-Saxon conquests, the Gaelic people of Ireland invaded in the North West, absorbed the Picts and Britons of what is now Scotland, and blended Gaelic into the stew.
The final seasonings were added when the Danes invaded in the 9th century, followed by the Norman conquest in the 10th. The Danes brought the Danish language and the Normans, several French dialects. All were stirred into the pot and simmered into what we now call English, though it still had to age for a while before becoming the language we speak today.
Now for those words and how they’ve changed.
Pussy
Probably the word most commonly used today to denote the “happy box” is “pussy”. “Pussy” has been around for a long time, and both the meaning and acceptability have changed more than once.
One theory about the origin of “pussy” is it is derived from the Old Norse word “puss” which means pocket pouch. While that makes some sense anatomically and in current usage, another theory maintains “pussy” is derived from “pusillanimous”, which means cowardly. It first appeared in writing around the 16th century, but instead of having a sexual meaning, it was a term of endearment for women.
An example was written by Phillip Stubbs, an English pamphleteer in response to the men’s then tendency to marry too early.
“No, no, it maketh no matter these things, so long as he have his pretty pussy to huggle for that is the only thing he desireth.”
That meaning changed in the 17th century as evidenced by a bawdy song of the time. “Puss” had long been used as the common name for a cat, and this song used double entendre to hint at the term as used to describe a woman’s genitalia.
A pretty young kitty she had that could purr.
Twas gamesome and handsome and had a rare fur.
And straight up I took it and offered to stroke it.
In hopes I should make it kind.
By the 19th century, “pussy” had become the derogatory term used for an effeminate man, and is still used in that meaning today.
The advent of erotic writing probably brought “pussy” into common usage as a name for the vagina, but women found it degrading. That too changed in the late 20th century and continues into today. Feminists embraced the word as a symbol of the power of womanhood, initially with slogans such as “I have the pussy so I make the rules”, and recently by knitting and wearing the “pussy hats” worn at some protest marches.
Fuck
“Fuck” is one of those words so old its origins can’t really be conclusively traced. There are various theories ranging from Old German to Latin to Greek with a little modern urban mythology thrown in for good measure.
What has changed about “fuck” isn’t so much the meaning of the word, but how it’s expanded from a commonly used verb – I fuck, you fuck, we all fuck – into a noun – “You’re a pathetic fuck”, an adjective – “He’s a fucking moron”, an adverb – “He fucking nailed it”, an expletive - “Oh fuck”, and a curse – “Fuck you” and “Fuck off”.
It’s been joined to other words to form compound nouns such as “fucknut”, “fuckface”, and the ever popular “motherfucker”. It has also become common to hear it inserted into more socially acceptable words to denote a superlative state, such as “absofuckinglutely”.
Prick
“Prick” comes to modern English from the Middle English word “prikke which in turn is derived from the Old English “prica” which mean point or puncture. It was used around the mid 1500’s as the name for a dagger though it is likely the word was used to denote the penis long before the first recorded instance of that usage in 1592. It’s very easy to see how that connection could be made.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, “prick” was used by women considered to be less than modest as a term of endearment for their boyfriends – “he’s such a fine prick” - but by the 19th century, “prick” came to mean “fool”.
Today, “prick” has changed meaning to denote a person, usually male, who is disgusting or as an insult – “He’s a prick”, and “You’re a real prick” – as well as a less commonly used word for the penis.
Dick
Here’s another less medical name for the penis that has changed over the centuries. In Proto-German, the word “Rikharthu” was like many words in German, composed of two other words – “Rik”, meaning ruler, and “harthu” meaning hard. It was changed in Old High German to the name “Ricohard”, then into Old French and Old English as “Richeard” and finally into “Richard”.
Because in those days everything was written by hand, it was common to abbreviate things, and Richard was sometimes written as “Rich” or “Rick”, just as it is today, and often those “nicknames” only rhymed somewhat with the original name. “Dick” became one of those abbreviations for the name “Richard”. Dick probably stuck with us because around the 16th century, it came to be associated with masculinity and strength.
What happened to “dick” after that is a little fuzzy, but in the 17th century it was sometimes used to mean a unsavory person or a person without morals. In the 19th it was used in Britain as the name for a riding crop and also as a verb for the actions of a policeman eyeing a suspect. That may be how the mid-20th century name of “private dick” for a private detective came to be.
It isn’t known when “dick” came to mean penis, but it’s first use is associated with the British military. A riding crop was common in the British military when horses were the means of travel so perhaps it was the resemblance between an erect penis and the handle of a riding crop that caused the new meaning.
From those beginnings, dick has retained the meaning of a person of questionable character but as did “fuck”, has evolved into other meanings and forms. In British English, “dick” can mean “nothing”, as in, “I got dick for my birthday” or “that doesn’t mean dick”. It can be a verb – “I dicked her good” or “don’t dick with me”, a noun with endearing or derogatory meaning – “You’re a good dick” or “Now, you’re being a real dick”, and is combined with other words to form “dickhead” – both an annoying person and the glans of the penis, and “dickbrain” – a really stupid person.
It’s interesting that many females seem to be more comfortable using the word “dick” instead of “cock”.
Cock
“Cock” comes to English from the French “coq” and originally meant a male bird. It is still used as the name for male birds today. It’s use as a name for the penis probably evolved from the stiff, erect, strutting walk most male birds assume when seeking a mate. It’s not difficult to see the comparison, well, except even hard cocks aren’t all that erect if you’re walking around.
As with the other slang terms for the old joy stick, “cock” has over time become a verb, and adjective, and is combined with other words. One can “cock things up”, be “cock-eyed”, and be a “fucking cock”, though that last one seems to overstate the obvious.
So, if you’re writing about the 16th century, it would be normal for your female character to say, “A fine prick is my Horatio. It makes me happy when he calls me his little pussy.” If your story is set in modern times, that might not convey the meaning you want. It’s all in understanding where we’ve been, and how we got to where we are today.