"I Will Not Move From Where I'm Standing..."

[psalm_onethirtyone]

Would it be time-period appropriate to use the word 'screw' as a euphemism for having sex in a LM fic? If it's Grantaire using it?

Comments

[snowyofthenight.livejournal.com]

Not so sure. But I'm almost positive 'fuck' would be okay.

[tomorrowmaker.livejournal.com]

*grimace* I'm trying to avoid that if possible, as Mum is once again my beta-reader. Perhaps I shall employ the handy word-switching technique petronelle recommended to me.

[snowyofthenight.livejournal.com]

Ahaha. Mooost understandable. XD

[tomorrowmaker.livejournal.com]

*nods* *G*

[rickmangled.livejournal.com]

The Online Etymology Dictionary says :
Sense of "means of pressure or coercion" is from 1648, probably in ref. to instruments of torture (e.g. thumbscrews).
Meaning "prison guard, warden" is 1812 in underworld slang, originally in reference to the key they carried.
To have a screw loose "have a dangerous (usually mental) weakness" is recorded from 1810.
Screwy (1820) originally meant "tipsy, slightly drunk;" sense of "crazy, ridiculous" first recorded 1887.

"Dick the dog", a verbal phrase meaning to waste time, has been used in military slang since the 1800s, to be replaced by today's "screw the pooch", and the new meaning of to foul up disasterously, but when the verb was changed, and thus when 'screw' could discribe an act of carnal knowledge, no one is sure.

If you can divine an answer out of those runon sentences, I commend you. :)

[rickmangled.livejournal.com]

Oo Oo!

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), 'screw' the verb was defined as "1. To use violent means in making exactions; to be oppressive or exacting. 2. To turn one's self uneasily with a twisting motion; as, he screws about in his chair."

So, unless Grantaire was sordidly obtaining a debt repayment, nope.

[tomorrowmaker.livejournal.com]

Hmph.

*loves mental image, though*

[mhari.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if it was in use in the English vernacular as early as that. HOWEVER I think it's an established enough and neutral enough term that it wouldn't jar me; I'd just read it as a translation of whatever semi-rude French word he was actually using. :)

[tomorrowmaker.livejournal.com]

Excellent. *uses!*

[madameviking.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, so you'd better use "boom-boom" just to be safe ;-)

Actually, I think mhari put it perfectly. It's all good, since they don't speak English.

I hope this is a Grantaire/Jehan fic. Hehehehehehehe.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

*snrks*

Okay, good. Thank you. ^_^

Um. It's not. I'm sorry. *wibbles* It's in reference to Courfeyrac, and it's more of the lovely Amis!hate.

[madameviking.livejournal.com]

Haha, I can deal with that too. *loveslovesloves Courfeyrac*

[lunaedraconis.livejournal.com]

MUST reread Les Mis...MUST...

I *heart* you to bits, you know, even if you're not a reference to the Shah Jahan.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Yes, yes, you must!

*sqeaks* ^_^ Thank you.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__veronika__/]

Hey!
I know, I know, the singing-and-dancing version of anything is not the place to go to find historical accuracy, but I had on my Les Mis CD, and in "Upon these Stones", as everyone's rallying at the barricade, Grantaire exclaims "Lets give 'em a screwing / They'll never forget!" and I thought about you. :)

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

The musical is so not trustworthy for time-period-appropriateness. :P As you said.

But squee, she thought of me!