Under 35 Project : Sex and Dating and how I hate the word HORNY

2012 March 31
by Tanya McGinnity
Here’s a video featuring that sassy Lodro Rinzler  and a call to action for submissions for the Under 35 Project.  Within this video, he says the ‘H’ word that I dislike to the core of my being.
Horny.
I hate the word horny.
HATE.
I remember a therapist using it in a session and I grit my teeth when she said it. I may have even threw up a little bile. Visions of frantic, covered in sex-stink, humping toads fill my mind when I hear it.
Hearing it today from Lodro’s pixellated lips to my judgmental little fleshy ears made me curious on the etymology of the word.
Thus I have read online:
As early as the mid 18-th century, an errection was known as a horn or the horn, simply because it looked a bit like one. James Joyce even used the term in his ‘Ulysses’. From there, any many having the horn was simply called horny and this is first recorded in 1889.
and here
The term dates from the 15th century. The horn/phallus link is also the reason some Eastern cultures prize the powdered horn of certain animals, notably the rhinoceros, as an aphrodisiac. Horns have also traditionally been associated with cuckoldry. I’m told that in many European languages, being horny means you’ve been betrayed by your spouse. For instance, the Byzantine Greek word for cuckold, kerasthoros, means “horn bearer.” It’s claimed this usage derives from the practice of grafting the spurs of a capon (a castrated rooster) onto his comb, thereby creating horns.
2 Responses leave one →
  1. it makes life worth living permalink
    April 1, 2012

    Enjoy your ridiculously petty emotional obsessions while you can.

    • Tanya McGinnity permalink*
      April 1, 2012

      Sounds like a threat?

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