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Examples
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Are you tellin 'me now I should have gone against the King and Queen just to spare Sukey a little houghmagandy that shouldn't have done her or the kid any harm?
The Golden Torc May, Julian, 1931- 1981
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Looking at them both as they sauntered down the church steps, Hadley could imagine them emerging from a fancy whorehouse after an hour or more of houghmagandy.
The Chisholms Evan Hunter 1976
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Looking at them both as they sauntered down the church steps, Hadley could imagine them emerging from a fancy whorehouse after an hour or more of houghmagandy.
The Chisholms Evan Hunter 1976
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Looking at them both as they sauntered down the church steps, Hadley could imagine them emerging from a fancy whorehouse after an hour or more of houghmagandy.
The Chisholms Evan Hunter 1976
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We do all the sacrificing, believing, self-mortification, fasting and abstaining; Dawkins and his legion of the godless get to do all the houghmagandy, as Robert Burns would have put it.
The Guardian World News Kevin McKenna 2009
chained_bear commented on the word houghmagandy
Found this on World Wide Words:
"Adulterous sexual intercourse.
It’s a rare word these days, but as it has a grand sound — and it is of such universal application — perhaps somebody should begin a campaign to restore it to common usage. One well-known appearance is in Vladimir Nabokov’s book Pale Fire: “She would have preferred him to have gone through a bit of wholesome houghmagandy with the wench�?. We do know the word was originally Scots, as the guttural gh indicates. The first part is the same word as hock, the joint in a four-legged animal that matches the human ankle, sometimes still spelt that way (as in the Scots’ hough soup). It can also refer to the hollow part behind the human knee joint (didn’t you always want a word for it? Actually it’s better known to medicine as the popliteal area) as well as the nearby thigh. The second element of the word is problematic; it could be from canty, a Scots and northern English dialect adjective for someone who is lively or cheerful, or perhaps active or brisk. So, a bit of active thigh work — you can see how the word could have arisen. There seems to be no link with the similar-sounding but obsolete Australian word for a thin and unpalatable stew, hashmagandy, which comes from salmagundi."
I think we on Wordie have an obligation to assume command of the campaign to bring this word back into common usage. Who's with me?!
December 9, 2007
bilby commented on the word houghmagandy
c_b, your comment begins 'adulterous sexual intercourse' and concludes with the battle cry 'Who's with me?!' I tried to read the middle bit too.
December 9, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word houghmagandy
HA! Why, so it does! Completely accidental, that...
December 10, 2007
reesetee commented on the word houghmagandy
Oh, sure. :->
December 10, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word houghmagandy
Who's with me?!
December 5, 2008
garyth123 commented on the word houghmagandy
great reference to VN
December 14, 2008
sionnach commented on the word houghmagandy
In order to keep buying new, ever more elaborate, animal confectionery dispensers to pacify the marsupial element on Wordie I've had to hock ma candy!
Fade out to the sound of peasant, thigh-slapping, guffaws.
(Sometimes I crack myself up with my rapier-like vulpine country wit....)
snortly-snort-snort
March 25, 2009
bilby commented on the word houghmagandy
Not to be confused with the first Scottish Prime Minister of Indian descent, Mahoughma Gandy.
March 25, 2009
bujinin1 commented on the word houghmagandy
HOUGHMAGANDY noun fucking as a pastime . . . she would have preferred him to have gone through a bit of wholesome houghmagandy with the wrench. Nabokov, Pale Fire, p. 212.
listed in The Logodaedalians Dictionary, The Oxter English Dictionary and the Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Intereesting Words, all basically the same book by George S. Saussy III
February 6, 2010
bilby commented on the word houghmagandy
What's with noobs that makes them unable to scroll down?
*adjusts grumpy hat*
February 6, 2010
oroboros commented on the word houghmagandy
*hands bilby a confection out of sionnach's new, elaborate dispenser*
February 7, 2010
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word houghmagandy
Maybe 'adulterous sexual intercourse' was too sophisticated.
February 7, 2010
chelster commented on the word houghmagandy
Just fyi, this word does not denote adultery. It is defined simply as "fornication" in the Century, Webster 2, and the OED. So as long as you're not married to your dancing partner, it's houghmagandy.
September 9, 2010