In my upcoming book Words from Hell (Chambers 2023), I delve into a chapter dedicated to exploring the origins of all things erotic and naughty. The excerpt below from the book delves into some intriguing and alluring terms that you may not have come across before—and even if you have, you might enjoy discovering their titillating beginnings.
Bathukolpian (also spelled bathykulpian or bathycolpian)
This term describes voluptuous breasts. It literally translates to “deep-bosomed” and derives from the Greek elements bathys “deep” and kolpos “breast.”
Callipygian
This word of Greek origin means “having beautiful buttocks” (kallos “beauty” + pygē “rump, buttocks”) and was initially used to describe a statue of a woman with particularly appealing buttocks, often identified as the Callipygian Venus.
The statue depicts her lifting her garment, known as a peplos, to reveal her shapely posterior. It is believed to be a marble replica of an earlier bronze statue, discovered without its head. In the 16th century, the head was restored, with the restorer positioning it in a way that she appears to be admiring her own lovely rear.
Concupiscence
This term for lustfulness comes from the Latin concupiscere, meaning “to desire eagerly,” with the root cupere signifying “to long for.” It shares this root with the Roman god Cupid.
Ithyphallic
This word refers to a type of meter used in ancient Greek poetry, named after the Greek ithyphallos, a large model phallus carried during Bacchus festivals. It specifically denotes a penis pointing straight upward.
The poetic meter takes its name from the phallus as it was the meter used in Bacchic hymns sung during the procession of the large phallus. In Victorian English, this term, ithyphallic, was also used to describe things and behaviors considered vulgar and indecent.
Muliebrity
Another term for “femininity” or “womanhood,” this word emerged in English as the female equivalent of “virility” in men in the late 1500s. It originates from the Latin mulier, meaning “woman”—though with a somewhat misogynistic connotation as it is thought to be linked to mollis, meaning “soft” or “weak.”
Related variations of this term in English history include muliebral, meaning “womanly” or “pertaining to a woman,” mulibrious, meaning “effeminate,” and mulierosity, meaning “excessive fondness for women.”
Rantallion
This word, documented in the 1785 A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by lexicographer Francis Grose, is said to describe “one whose scrotum is so relaxed that it is longer than his penis,” or, in Grose’s words, someone “whose shot pouch is longer than the barrel of his piece.”
The origin of this term remains unknown as most references to it simply trace back to Grose’s creative dictionary. However, earlier records include similar words like rantipole, typically referring to a “rude, wild person,” especially a child, or in the context of “riding rantipole,” denoting the woman-on-top or “cowgirl” position.
It is possible that the common factor in these words is the verb “rant,” which originally had a positive connotation—indicating jovial and boisterous behavior. (Hence, rantallion could imply a sense of “big-dick energy” but focused more on the testicles, while rantipole could suggest people having a lively time.) This connection to “rant” also links it to the word “randy,” a variation reflecting the cheerful and lively sense of “rant” as well.
For more, check out Words from Hell.
