Word word balls up
Modern demons have advanced a bit.
Words are like people. Complex. They each have a history, an evolution. And just like when you sleep with someone you’re also sleeping with everyone that person has ever slept with (hawt), when you say a word you summon up all these wonderful tendrils of ghostly meanings that you might not even realize.
And some of the tendrils just tickle me.
Chastity and celibacy are now used interchangeably to mean “miserable”…er, rather, to mean “the state of not fucking”. In days of yore, though, neither of them meant that. You could actually be either and also get laid. Chastity referred to having no illicit sexual liaisons, so no-frills sex inside marriage for purposes of procreation was perfectly chaste. Celibacy simply meant “the state of not marrying”. Celibate clergy would have loads of bastard babies back in yore.
The etymological roots of incubus and succubus come from the Latin for “to lie upon” and “to lie under”, respectively. This suggests that even demons observe the missionary position. How bland.
There’s no point to this other than the fact that I find it terribly interesting.
I’ve heard this before; AFAIK I’m the only commenter to ever use the word chastity, which I use to mean no sex outside of marriage (no intimations of procreation or lack of frills in marriage intended). Do you actually know people who think the word chastity excludes some or all sex in marriage?
‘Celibacy simply meant “the state of not marrying”. Celibate clergy would have loads of bastard babies back in yore.’
Huh, I didn’t know that about the word celibate, and was so sure of the “no sex” definition that I checked the Online Etymological Dictionary before accepting yours.
Celibate but unchaste clergy; the fruits of a socio-political-economic system where becoming clergy was one of very few job options. The same system that forbade translating the Bible. That’s why I tend to use the word “biblical” rather than the word “Christian”.
Some of my favorite word history examples: the way the words “meal”, “corn”, and “meat” have changed meanings drastically. My favorite word and phrase history site:
http://www.word-detective.com/
@Mousie00 I’ve heard/read “chastity” used as a synonym for “abstinence” a great deal, and it actually makes perfect sense to use it that way if you haven’t been specifically told the textbook definition. A chastity belt stops you from having sex while you’re wearing it. Nuns, who take a vow of chastity, are abstinent by virtue of remaining celibate and chaste, but the vow of chastity is the thing that’s stressed. Since these are two of the most common uses of the word, it’s not the kind of distinction one can easily make from context. I think the original meaning is becoming increasingly archaic.
At the (arguable) height of Catholic corruption, it seems like clergy were more politicians than anything else. This can be said for a lot of today’s clergy in many denominations, but I don’t necessarily think it’s on the scale it was when the Church was very possibly the most powerful empire on Earth.
Also, great link!