Subject:
R: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: Re: [NABOKV-L] The most transgressive book ever published ("souffler" in Lolita)]
From:
"pndale" <kubea@libero.it>
Date:
Sun, 18 Jun 2006 15:42:49 +0200
To:
"Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>

 
'In the past I referred to Van's pestering Ada to pronounce the word that rhymes with "patio", which she refuses, in connection with matters irrumatory.' A. Bouazza.
 
Patio does not rhyme, however, with the fellatio, neither in standard American pronunciation not in common English usage. It is at best a visual, not an aural, rhyme.
 
A further, more ticklish point. 'in connection with matters irrumatory'. Irrumation is used here implicitly, I presume, as a synonym for fellatio, an oral rhyme, as it were. However, at least in classical usage, the two activities are quite distinct, and sharply contrasted.
 
"Irrumo and fello describe the same type of sexual act, but from different points of view: irrumo from the viewpoint of the active violator (mentulam in os inserere), fello from that of the passive participant.' J.N.Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary Duckworth 1982 p.126. Etymologically, it was the difference between 'giving a teat'(ruma) and 'sucking on a teat' (fello)
 
Peter Dale
 
 

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