History Main / GetTheeToANunnery

** JackChick used this in one of his tracts about the tale of Sodom and Gommorah, with a side of {{DontExplainTheJoke Don't Explain the Joke}}

* ''Punk'' has undergone a remarkable semantic shift over the past century or so. It first appeared sometime around TheGayNineties, and was prison slang for....well, for a concept quite similar to that covered by ''gunsel''. Flash forward ten and a half decades later, and the primary meaning of ''punk'' is not only something non-sexual, but something that can be interpreted as a compliment!

*** Related to a prostitute's propensity to harbour [[http://www.trichomoniasis.org/ certain STDs]], perhaps?

** "In the Biblical sense" is an idiom in modern day Hebrew. Used also in ''Sister Act''.

** The word "foot" in Biblical usage is often an euphemism for "penis". In 2 Samuel 11:8, David's exhortation to Uriah to "Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet" is meant to get him to have sex with his wife, whom David has just gotten pregnant. (It doesn't work.)

->Hamlet: ''I did love you once.''
->Ophelia: ''Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.''

-->-- ''Hamlet Act 3, scene 1, 114–121''

->Hamlet: ''Get thee to a nunn'ry, why woulds't thou be a breeder of sinners?''

** Genesis 24:9, Abraham's servant swears by holding Abraham's '''package''': ''"And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter."'' Swearing a promise on your father's genitals (yes, you were expected to cup [[IncrediblyLamePun his family jewels]]) was considered the most sacred of oaths in Jewish society, and in this case Abraham was a father figure to his servant.

** Also, Adam's rib may have had nothing to do with the ribs in his chest, rather a part of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baculum anatomy that humans lack]].

*** And a line in ''TheSandman: A Game of You'', originally published in 1991:

<<|LanguageTropes|>>
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* Any time the word "horns" shows up in Elizabethan English, it's a reference to adultery. The "cuckold's horns" were said to grow from the head of a man whose wife was disloyal. The term still carries that meaning in several European languages, which typically makes an English learner's first encounter with the word ''horny'' very strange, indeed...

** ''[[GetTheeToANunnery Knowing]]'' Douglas Adams?
*** What's wrong with that?
**** Nothing.
***** I'll show you [[GetTheeToANunnery nothing]].
*** [[TVTropesWillRuinYourVocabulary It is getting difficult to carry on a proper conversation.]]
**** ''CarryOn?''
**** Don't blame us for [[HaveAGayOldTime your difficulties with intercourse.]]
*** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint But does Douglas Adams]] [[PlanescapeTorment * Know* ]] [[CompletelyMissingThePoint himself]]?
**** [[ADateWithRosiePalms I'm pretty sure everybody know themselves at least occasionally.]]

* Terry Pratchett has particular fun with the word "fornication" in Discworld's ''Making Money''. The root of "fornication" is "fornix", meaning "arch". As Moist is being shown around the bank, he is shown some quite wonderful fornication, which people come through in large groups to see. (This of course refers to the bank's vaulted ceiling).

*** ...and JKRowling is enough of an English Lit. geek to have known that, too.
**** ...not to mention the kind of person who would do [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar that sort of thing]].
*** Thanks for ruining the FarseerTrilogy for me.
*** If wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure, what's a woman's?
*** Nothing.
*** Ahh.

** Of course, "willy" is still slang for a penis. Woe betide anyone who tries doing ''FreeWilly'' in charades.

*** And penis can be traced back to the Latin for sword