Words, as any good dictionary will tell us, often have many meanings. Some words tell us the brutal truth; others are euphemisms, making the described matter fit for polite society. When Eliza, to Colonel Pickering’s amusement, encourages her racehorse she uses the real word, not a euphemism. She does not yell “Move your blooming posterior.” Fit for polite society as this blog is we shall call Eliza’s colorful expression the “a-word.” In Bavaria, where the following happened, the common folk speak German, but in a very earthy dialect. Needless to point out that they also prefer the a-word to the euphemism.
Apartment houses in Munich are typically four stories high and have flat roofs. People sometimes find their way up, spread a beach towel and take a sunbath. If you have chosen a house that is taller than the surrounding ones nobody can see you. Clothing, then, is optional. A lady friend of ours one day made use of that situation, luxuriating face down in the warm sun.
But there is also a lot of equipment on the roofs, boxes, pipes, conduits, drains and such. On that day a young mechanic had been sent up to test some valves. As he stepped out on the roof he must have been stunned. Yet, not showing a hint of embarrassment, he managed to express a most innocent, completely honest and guileless compliment. “Fräulein!” he almost shouted. “You have the most beautiful (a-word)!”
Given the young man’s lack of education and sophistication, I give him a lot of credit for taste in art. I suspect that in every human male’s soul there hides a Renoir or a Boucher.