Due to a debate on the new hug thread, I've been wondering why some scientific words are seen as "dirty". For instance, it is recommended that parents use scientifically accurate terms when teaching children about their own genitalia. So, why is the word "vulva" any less appropriate than "penis"? I suppose neither of them is right for polite company, but there are occasions when they are the correct terms to use.
Why aren't other scientific words seen as obnoxious? "Gluteus maximus" has a certain beauty and elegance. Even "sphincter" rolls off the tongue with ease. Yet we shiver to mention "vulva". We are much more comfortable talking about male anatomy.
I'm curious as to why.
Also, I'm wondering what your favorite science words are. Which ones do you find lovely, and which give you the willies?
Some I find pretty: Ardea herodias, Araneus marmoreus, herpetology, Hymenoptera, phalanges, menses
Willy words: sclera, pus, epidermis, colposcopy
Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
Interesting. I was under the impression that vulva was a more acceptable word than penis in public discourse.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
Right now the term "Row Reduced Echelon Matrix" isn't exactly pleasing to my ears.
Same goes for "Morkov Process" and "RCL circut frequencies"
Hobbes Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Tres, check out the new hug thread. People are VERY uncomfortable with the term. At least here in the Midwest, I often hear people call men by their genital's name in jest, but even mention the female's genitals as part of a "woman-to-woman" advice conversation, and the room falls into shocked silence. It gets to the point where you don't even know what term to use.
Posted by Maccabeus (Member # 3051) on :
I hadn't noticed. But then, perhaps I have heard too many foul-mouthed children making penis jokes.
Posted by Alucard... (Member # 4924) on :
Jenny, not to be crude, but any of your favorite terms and them rolling off the tongue can be construed as...um shall we say...dangerous.
I myself prefer platyhelminthes.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Platyhelminthes is lovely. Why is Araneus marmoreus rolling off the tongue dangerous? It's the name of a woodland spider!
I also like Annelida.
Posted by Alucard... (Member # 4924) on :
Sorry, my mind has been in a rut of crudeness, Peter Wiggin style, since I am rereading the Ender Quartet lately.
While we are talking crudely but scientifically, one of my favorite medical terms is Terasmus.
Main Entry: te·nes·mus Pronunciation: t&-'nez-m&s Function: noun Etymology: Latin, from Greek teinesmos, from teinein to stretch, strain -- more at THIN Date: 1527 : a distressing but ineffectual urge to evacuate the rectum or bladder
Terasmus is very similar to tenesmus, but deals with the loss of consciousness during a movement. This usually affects geriatrics and can be quite dangerous, or even fatal.
[ December 14, 2003, 09:11 PM: Message edited by: Alucard... ]
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
It wasn't the word, it was the manner in which it was used and the accompanying ascii art.
Any word can be like that, really. Taken out of the context that it's normally used in--such as in normal discourse over human reproductive organs--a word can be considered offensive.
Posted by MoonRabbit (Member # 3652) on :
quote: Even "sphincter" rolls off the tongue with ease.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Your epidermis is showing.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
It's funny because it's true.
Hobbes Posted by Human (Member # 2985) on :
Personally I'm a fan of the Uvula.
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
So I googled "sphincter" and hit "I'm feeling lucky" and got this.
O.o
[ December 14, 2003, 09:48 PM: Message edited by: sarcasticmuppet ]
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I think its a sexism type issue.
People are more comfortable describing male anatomy because it right there, where you can't miss it.
female reproductive anatomy is more hidden, and as with hidden things, it has become forbidden and mysterious. It is a woman's power to reproduce, and a woman vunerability all wrapped up in one hidden area. That is pwerful.
We don't talk about such things because we don't know about such things because we don't talk about such things.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Hush Dan! You'll blow everyone's cover!
Posted by Human (Member # 2985) on :
I know what you mean by science terms being dirty words. Some people I knew and I were playing trivial pursuit or something, and the question came up, 'What do you call the part of the body an unborn baby grows in'
My mother is a nurse. I used the scientific term, uterus. Everyone else in the room said 'womb', then looked at me as if I had a second head. I'm going...'what?'
I don't know exactly why some terms for things are considered 'nicer', or at least more acceptable, and some aren't.
Posted by Richard Berg (Member # 133) on :
The different words for genitalia at least have the significance of being different words. Meanwhile it's inacceptable to say **** on TV, but you can say fudge or "the f-word" or f-*bleep* (while watching them mouth the exact phoneme) just fine, clearly intending the exact same meaning in the exact same context.
Semantics aside (literally), I won't deny that there's a practical difference. Linguists call it "sentence leveling," for which sociologists would ascribe the ubiquitous middle-class tendency toward neutrality ("fitting in with the Jones'"). In English we usually have lexical variation as above, or the orthographic one imposed by our forum software, but other languages do interesting things within the grammar itself: witness the Japanese "hon kure" -> "hon o kurete" and the many levels of complexity in between.
Culture never ceases to <strike>annoy</strike>amaze.
Back to the taboo originally under discussion, sex and excretion and death are pretty popular places to find euphemisms for whatever reason. Historically, we actually have it pretty good -- in many aboriginal societies it was taboo to make "direct reference to any object that could be conceived of as phallic, in the presence of their mother in law. (So like, bottles, rakes, trees, et cetera)" (quoting a friend with more random cultural facts in his head than I) Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :
Vulva doesnt bother me at all.
Nor does penis.
But then again, one has to search long and hard (no pun intended) for a word that offends me.
Posted by asQmh (Member # 4590) on :
Mack is still under the impression that 'exegesis' is something dirty. But apparently only when I do it. I probably shouldn't go wagging my hermeneutics around, but I really think it's just a wrinkle in her ecumenism.
...
Q.
(I don't have any favorite science terms. I had to substitute)
[ December 15, 2003, 09:03 AM: Message edited by: asQmh ]
Posted by Beca (Member # 4340) on :
'Exegesis' gives me the collywobbles. For that matter, even though it isn't a science word, 'dialectic' has been known to send me into shock. I took one to many "Modern Culture and Media" courses in college.....
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
I personally like macrosporangiate strobilus myself
It's a pine cone.
AJ
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
quote:Terasmus is very similar to tenesmus, but deals with the loss of consciousness during a movement. This usually affects geriatrics and can be quite dangerous, or even fatal.
That's how Elvis died.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Really? Holy Sh.....
No, that's too bad for me to post.
I'll go back to calling everyone here Blatant Homosapiens.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Am I the only one who sees the female organ system as somewhat more complex than the male? I mean, vulva is only part of the system. In reality, the male system is just as complex but because you can't see them, there isn't as great a need to remember the vas defrens, the epididymus, and all that. I remember learning a diagram with like 11 terms, but I only remember a few. Though it did make the Homecoming series more interesting.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
I wonder if Alan Ginsburg was born homosexual or learned to like men so he could write that poem...
Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
Personally I like to substitutue the name of the mineral Schist to use instead of shit.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
we prefer feces. I think the longest car trip of my mom's life was when my sister, who was completing Medical school at the time, started a word game wherein we replace nouns in the titles of TV shows with "feces." There was a debate over which was more mellifluous: Star Feces or Feces Trek. It finally devolved into Feces Feces. Of course, whenever she tried to correct us, we threatened to resume the discussion over whether those Orange Slice candies are a liquid or a colloid.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Why do you sort them that way?
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
When I was a sophomore in college, I was on the New Student Orientation Committee. I was one of three leaders of one of the small 'teams' of new students. The teams competed in several games, made human pyramids, played leapfrog in the mud, etc. One was a lipsynch contest.
We used a Steve Taylor song about situational ethics (It was much funnier than it sounds). Most of the group we had were from other countries and not terribly tall, for some reason. We had it set up so that everyone would be students in a class, and lip synch the chorus and exclamations, but we had this one guy play the teacher.
To make it funny (and also because we knew his older sister pretty well ) we made him drss in drag. It fit the song, because Steve Taylor did the teacher's part in a funny falsetto. Anyway, it was extra funny because the guy had facial hair.
Anyway ... He had done himself up in women's clothes, but he didn't have a bra. We were getting ready to go on, and his chest was all lumpy and uneven. I said "Come here, John, your breasts are crooked."
The other two leaders (both girls) became embarrassed and laughed hysterically. Then they told me I should have said "boobs." But I have always hated slang terms for breasts (maybe because I don't have any ). I was appalled that they 'd rather I said "boobs" or "tits".
To this day, I stioll don't see what the fuss was about. I mean, we all enjoyed humiliating John. He handled it well. Even HE didn't get why the GIRLS were so embarrassed by the word. I ended up dating him for a little while, now that I think about it. We bonded over his deformed breasts. Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :
remember in middle school when youd play 'penis' in the lunchroom?
Each person would say the word penis just a little louder than the person before them until somebody got sent to the principal's office.
After a certain volume level, self preservation kicked in and we would lead off with the names of planets: "MARS!" "JUPITER!" "PENIS!"
Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :
Speaking of dressing in drag, My first semester in the fraternity, we did lip synch during greek week and of course, i ended up in a hoochie dress in makeup and glitter in front of the entire greek community at UNCG. I go more compliments as a hoochie chick than i ever did as a man wearing a shirt and tie. And ive got at least an A cup all natural, so i was good to go. Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
I always liked the spanish word for refrigerator. I think it's spelled the same, but it sounds like: RE-FRICK-HEIR-ADOR! Say it with a good angry-spaniard accent and you have yourself a new cuss-word.
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
I had to dress up a Frida Kahlo, once. My breasts kept sliding down.
I ogt lots of catcalls, though. . . Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :
Ahh but then there is the portuguese word for 'blender'
liquidaficadores
Leak-eej-ah-FEEK-ah-door-ez
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
I think "corpuscle" is an ucky word. The sound disturbs me.
Posted by Maccabeus (Member # 3051) on :
Drat. I know the meanings of nearly all of those words and I find my response is distorted because of it. I realized that with almost all I was reacting mostly to the meaning.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
I think you have a good point, Jenny. Why do we get so bent out of shape?
I mean, heck . . . I'm glad my wife has a Vulva™.
Posted by jexx (Member # 3450) on :
I have always disliked the word 'milk'. I like the product itself, I just don't like to say it out loud. Milllk. Eck.
Also funny: I used to curse out my brother in Spanish, using words like 'libro' (book), 'biblioteca' (library) and my personal favorite, 'sacapuntas' (pencil sharpener)! He got me back when he learned Russian, though. *grin*
Does anyone remember the SNL sketch with Chevy Chase and Lorraine Neuman about the importance of your uvula? *snicker*
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) we made him drss in drag. It fit the song, because Steve Taylor did the teacher's part in a funny falsetto. Anyway, it was extra funny because the guy had facial hair.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
). I was appalled that they 'd rather I said "boobs" or "tits".![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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