Guys? I think I just realized something....

[conuly]

The Venus Flytrap. All these years I figured "Venus" came from the fact that it's an exotic (sorta) and "alien" plant. But now that I think about it.... Is it really some sort of vagina joke??? Am I the last one to the punchline here? I am, aren't I?

God, I hate when that happens. In other news, after checking the dictionary to see what they say, I've found out that "The Algonquian name for the plant, titipiwitshile, yielded regional Amer.Eng. tippity wichity." Well, that's just wonderful. The plant is nearly extinct in the wild.

Comments

[redbird]

At most the next-to-last, because if that is what the name is a reference to, I hadn't noticed it either.

[steorra]

If that's the etymology, I was also unaware. The Oxford English Dictionary is not in fact helpful on the point. However, I discovered that there is also a " Venus's navelwort", for which the OED gives the definitions: "(a) the pennywort, Cotyledon Umbilicus; (b) one or other species of annual plants belonging to the genus Omphalodes, esp. O. linifolia."

[conuly]

I checked out etymology.com which only said it comes from, well, Venus-the-goddess.

And when you think about it it makes more sense than Venus-the-planet.

[steorra]

Somewhat relatedly, are you familiar with the etymology of "orchid"?

[conuly]

I am now!

"The plant so called because of the shape of its root. Earlier in English in Latin form, orchis (1560s), and in M.E. it was ballockwort (c.1300; see ballocks). Marred by extraneous -d- in attempt to extract the Latin stem."

And I used to think Lords and Ladies was an oddly explicit name! (I didn't know then that that same plant is sometimes called Naked Boys. Sheesh!)

[ncp.livejournal.com]

Nope, *I'm* the last to realize it. Actually, you're the last to *realize* it, I'm just the last to know about it.

But yeah, it's a vagina reference, and it's pretty misogynist if you really think about it.

[erisiansaint]

It never once occurred to me until you said something. So it's really not just you.

[bookgirlwa.livejournal.com]

Didn't think of it either.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Alas, most times you run across a reference t0 Venus, it's the Roman sex goddess, not that planet called by the Elves Gil-Estel.

Titipiwitshile is a pretty name - wonder what THAT means? *sigh* Probably 'tiny penis-biter' in Algonquin: humans are all the same in certain ways.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

To distract you from that disheartening line of enquiry, how about THIS quibble: the phrase "Aren't I?"

Are I? Am I? Am I not? Am'n't I? (obs.) Ain't I? (colloq.)

*bowing, ducking, grinning, running*

[conuly]

Amn't isn't obsolete, it's just dialectical.