# Getting to first base in other cultures **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833 "2021-05-24T20:11:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/41 "2021-05-27T10:58:44Z")
Her dad walks in…you’re called out at (base), ejected from the game, switch from white to blue balls. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/42 "2021-05-27T11:54:48Z")
That is nicely reminiscent of _vergenußwurzeln_, a German expression combining _pleasure_ (Genuß) and _roots_ (Wurzel/n) to arrive at the same meaning you describe. Its main use is ironical, I would reckon. And indeed, as already stated (though I do not have a cite either) neither in Spain nor in Germany are so many euphemisms used for the stages leading to sexual intercourse as in the USA. We use a lot expressions, but those are not euphemisms, those are either synonyms or vulgarisms. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/43 "2021-05-27T12:01:33Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Interestingly, “bases” was recently (yes, I call 2014 “recent”) used in a Haruki Murakami short story published in the _New Yorker_ . It would be interesting to see what was used in the original Japanese language version. > > [j](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/17337/dating-slang-question-based-on-a-murakami-story) I’ll try to find out from my Japanese friends. It looks from the link that the answer matches what I remember and what my friend says. The page there links to the original question which was asked in Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/44 "2021-05-27T13:10:44Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Interestingly, “bases” was recently (yes, I call 2014 “recent”) used in a Haruki Murakami short story published in the _New Yorker_ . While I am trying to find out what the Japanese original said, the narrative seems to be about 1980. They go see _Manhattan_ in the theater. Culturally, it seems to be about that era. I first lived in Japan in 1982. The story looks back at events “16 years” ago and although it was published in Japanese in 2013 and 2014, the “current narrative” doesn’t have anything particularly modern about it. Murakami is around 70 years old. So, I think this isn’t an indication that that slang is used by younger kids. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/45 "2021-05-27T13:26:28Z")
As in baseball, if you don’t have your stuff, you can be pulled for a reliever. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/46 "2021-05-27T14:03:03Z")
If you actually need to be pulled out, doesn’t that imply that you have your stuff? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/47 "2021-05-27T14:06:12Z")
Pulled out because of the stickum you have under your cap. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/48 "2021-05-28T10:17:14Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > It would be interesting to see what was used in the original Japanese language version. It looks like the baseball terminology was simply inserted in the translation and the A, B, C slang wasn’t used at all. The translation has: “But she let you get to third base?” and the Japanese is 最後の手前まではやらせてくれたんか Which is directly translated as “But she let you go almost all the way?” This also matches my experience. I was told by another Westerner in the early 80s that this slang existed but never heard it directly myself. Several of my Japanese friends of a similar age confirmed that the A, B, C slang was actually used around then, but juvenile. Anyway, sorry for factfinding! Back to the jokes! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/49 "2021-05-28T14:13:06Z")
“Like” button. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/50 "2021-05-28T17:52:40Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Europeans use euphemisms _much less_ in the context of “dating”. Maybe key to this is the ‘dating’ ritual, which according to US TV seems quite drawn out. If one’s romantic tradition is more ‘drink until mutually-compliant’ there’s less need for much euphemism. Though I can’t speak for the whole of the UK. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/51 "2021-05-28T22:34:44Z")
Funny story: back in the early 1990s, there was an Australian dude living in our college dorm, and I happened to catch him watching an Australian Rules Football game on TV (his mom had sent him the tape). I asked him which team he was rooting for. Then the conversation got awkward. BTW, apparently it’s “barricking” over there. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/52 "2021-05-31T20:51:16Z")
> [@naita](#): > > I wonder if the staying power of the baseball euphemisms in US culture is due to the prudishness of US media when it comes to sex. I wonder if there even is staying power. I’m in my fifties and I never heard the baseball analogy used in a serious manner. It was always a joke or a movie reference. Other than someone asking if you were dating this person or again, jokingly, are you banging that person, I don’t think I ever heard anyone discuss their sex life in more detail. Hook up has been around for about 20 years now, and seems to be the words of choice whether you are dating or going at it like bunnies. > [@naita](#): > > Tangentially the movie Lost in Translation was rated R in the US for sexual situations Crap! I thought that was rated B for boring the fuck out of me. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > “having intercourse”, without beating around the bush. Did you do that on purpose? > [@Staggerlee](#): > > Maybe key to this is the ‘dating’ ritual, which according to US TV seems quite drawn out. If one’s romantic tradition is more ‘drink until mutually-compliant’ there’s less need for much euphemism. When I was in the dating pool, back when things were more freewheeling, the ‘drink until mutually-compliant’ was the norm. I never picked a girl up at her house or met her parents like you see on tv shows. It was more meet at party/bar/club, have sex, maybe evolved to something more, usually not. ---
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/53 "2021-06-03T20:59:31Z")
Based on the movie “Trainspotting” the equivalent term in Scotland seems to be a “[penetrating goal](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2c121fd4-23b2-4714-b518-f7ef2b72f5be).” ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/54 "2021-06-04T16:38:00Z")
The English, of course, have a [variety of euphemisms,](https://youtu.be/4Kwh3R0YjuQ) and a taste for _double entendre_ (if you’d like examples, I’m sure one or more of us would give you one). On the other hand, when I first started at Cambridge University, I was trying out for my college rowing club, anxious that it would be full of intimidating hooray henries. That went out the window when one of the more senior members turned out to have a broad Newcastle accent. When he complained about a blister, someone said it would soon go, and got the reply “Ah knaw, but it’s ma gropin’ finger!” ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833/55 "2021-06-04T18:42:34Z")
I wonder if the issue is that English/American seems to have a far higher prudery barrier than is my impression of other European cultures, or other cultures. Thus euphemisms instead of more explicit words, whether sports analogies or not. (When Chuck Berry had a hit “My Ding-a-ling” in the 70’s I recall something about it being banned in Britain, and Punch had a cartoon where a record executive is asking the meeting “Can we find a euphemism for ding-a-ling?”) So many expressions get the point across without using offensive words, to the point where almost everything is a double-entendre. “Going all the way”. “petting”, “knocked up” X (Some hilarity there in meanings on different sides of the Atlantic). Who knows how many words for intercourse - porking, banging, doinking… not to mention body parts or bodily functions (Number one or number two?). Indeed, there’s plenty of humor in using mundane phrases to imply sexual activity. Whereas from what I understand, _merde_ has not been as suppressed in French as the English equivalent. (Le mot de Cambronne?) Can we blame Queen Victoria for this? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-to-first-base-in-other-cultures/942833.md?page=2)