Short Stuff

While the canonical adjuration as regards the sexual eligibility of nubile young (and as regards most statutory ages of consent almost certainly too young) women is usually found in ‘if they’re old enough to bleed, they’re old enough to butcher’, I offer a list of synonyms. These are drawn from the researches of my fellow London lexicographer Neil Crawford, who for 30 years has been compiling a database, ‘on historical principles’, of the language of sex. He sent them to me; with his permission I pass them on to you.