poliphilo: (corinium)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2013-09-21 06:02 pm

Colloquial French

According to Edmund de Waal,  smart young Parisians in the late 19th century referred to bisexuals as being "entre deux lits"- between two beds. I wonder if the phrase is still current. 

[identity profile] ooxc.livejournal.com 2013-09-21 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Pointless piece of information - I lived in the same house in Oxford as his brother

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2013-09-21 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Small world. :)

[identity profile] raakone.livejournal.com 2013-09-21 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting term there. And one that wasn't appropriated from anywhere else.....as opposed to a certain English term. At one time AC/DC referred to appliances that worked on either voltage type, especially in Australia (it was those letters on a hairdryer that gave that rock band its name), but this became irrelevant with AC becoming the norm, except for a few small holdouts (as late as the 90's, in Boston, USA, there were some buildings that used DC for domestic power, and many a university student wrecked their laptops and lamps by plugging them in), and in the UK it referred to trains that could run on either type (now they usually say "Dual-Voltage"), so AC/DC just means.....between two beds, in the de Waal sense.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2013-09-22 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
Interesting.

I wonder if the term- as applied to bisexuals- will survive the disappearance of the technology it refers to.