by Jim Mica <JMICA@OA.ITHACA.EDU>
The mid-seventies was something of a confused time in the
academic world. This was especially the case in sociology.
There seemed to be a lot of people in sociology who started out
in some other profession. In particular, there seemed to be a
lot of ex-clergy in sociology.
Now, the ex-clergy sociologists didn't go into the hardcore areas
of sociology like demographics, sociometry or system theory. No,
they tended to cluster more in the "service" areas. You'd find
them teaching Social Problems {mandatory for future tv-movie of
the week fans}, Deviant Behavior {aka Nuts and Sluts} or Marriage
and The Family {meet and rate your future mate...}.
So there was this former Roman Catholic Priest teaching Marriage
and The Family at a large mid-western university. He was doing
fairly well with the "Varieties of Sexual Expression Within the
Marital Dyad" chapter until one sweet young thing piped up with a
question. She said that she needed to have a technical term
defined. When he asked what the word was she said,
"Cunnilingus."
Undaunted the professor turned from the class and wrote the word
on the blackboard. He then pointed out the ancient semantic
roots of the word: cunnus = lips (akin to cutis <-- skin) and
lingere = to lick with the tongue. He brought these concepts
together by saying that cunnilingus was the technical term for
what is commonly known as French Kissing.
The original questioner calmly wrote this in her notebook, but
more knowledgeable students had all they could do to keep from
soiling themselves. You see, they knew quite well that the
technical term for French Kissing is Lingua Franca.
The author grants the right to forward and reproduce the above as
long as the title and author's name are attached.