Inventiveness and Renewing the (Literary or Slang) Lexicon for an Atemporal Activity

Abstract

In academic French, there are relatively few verbs or expressions referring to the sex act (honorer une femme is jocular, coïter, copuler didactic). There are, however, a large number in non-conventional French. Some of these are presented in this article, direct transitives (baiser, sauter…), indirect transitives (lui dégager les écoutilles…) and even some intransitives (tirer son coup…), all from a predominantly male point of view. Slang changes: bouillaver, niquer, pécho… and occurs also in literary inventiveness: faire catleya (Proust), jouer le jeu de la bête à trois dos (Jorif), acalifourcher (San-Antonio)… Two humourous songs close this selection: Les ratés de la bagatelle (subtitled la chose) and Les nuits d’une demoiselle, which teem with a multitude of synonymic verbs and expressions. One serious neologism has been proposed by the feminist philosopher Bini Adamczak, circlusion, to avoid the male viewpoint inherent in pénétration.