Is there an official name for that space between a man’s nuts and his bung? I’ve looked all over the boards and haven’t found any references, and it’s hard as hell to find the answer using a general Internet search - you can’t do a keyword search if you don’t know the keyword! I’ve looked up pictures of male anatomy - no go there.
My husband and I refer to this place as the “nowhere spot” because, well, there’s nothing there! But considering the real estate it takes up, it seems it should have its own name.
But actually, ‘taint’ has been in the popular media for a while now. In terms of non-porno usage, it goes back at least as far as Beavis and Butt-head (who may also have introduced ‘chode’ to the masses). A few weeks ago, in fact, Conan O’Brien did a skit on Saturday Night Live about a man born with no taint (during which he issued the common etymology, “t’aint yer hem and t’aint yer haw; it’s just taint”).
Speaking of chode: I was under the impression the chode referred more to an internal organ located in that area (the main vein, as it were) and not to the outer taintly area. Anybody else learn it that way?
Very true, smoke. The SNL sketch seemed suspiciously like the Mr. Show sketch. Though, SNL is even ripping off themselves, now. A little while ago they did a sketch about an actor (Will Ferrel) getting hit in the crotch numerous times. The sketch was a lot like the one about the women’s self defense class quite a while back.
“Taint” for perineum first appeared in Ina May Gaskin’s book Spiritual Midwifery way back in the 1970s.
She used folksy sounding words, instead of cold clinical scientific terms, for the female anatomy to help put birthing women at their ease. She also renamed the vulva as “the puss.”
A folk etymology that I have not yet been able to confirm says that taint is not from the standard English word for contaminated (although that might have played a part in its distribution), but from the contraction of it ain’t because “it ain’t” either the genitals or the rectum.
Damn I hate to give away my age, but I heard it called the “taint” back when I was in high school. Elvis came out with “Hound Dog”* when I was a junior. It was understood as a contraction back then and I’m sure none of my contemporaries invented it. How far back does “ain’t” go?
Dammit, it’s called ‘taint’ because it’s job is to keep the balls from getting tainted by asswipe (for those back-to-front wipers.) A noble purpose, indeed.
