Usage
Futuō is richly attested in all its forms in Latin literature. It is in itself used metaphorically in Catullus 6, which speaks of latera ecfutūta, funds exhausted, literally "fucked away." Catullus 41 speaks of a puella dēfutūta, a girl exhausted from sexual activity; while Catullus 29 similarly speaks of a mentula diffutūta, a penis similarly worn out.
Futuō, unlike "fuck", was more frequently used in erotic and celebratory senses rather than derogatory ones or insults. A woman of Pompeii wrote the graffito fututa sum hic ("I got laid here") and prostitutes, canny at marketing, appear to have written other graffiti complimenting their customers for their sexual prowess: Felix bene futuis ("Lucky boy, you have fucked well"); Victor bene valeas qui bene futuis ("Victorious, best wishes to one who has fucked well"), with futuis corresponding to classical futuisti. It is famously used erotically in Catullus 32:
- sed domi maneas paresque nobis
novem continuas fututiones.- ("but you remain at home and prepare for us nine acts of fucking, one after the other.")
Futuō in its active voice was used of women only when it was imagined that they were taking the active role thought appropriate to the male partner by the Romans. The woman in Martial VII:
- Ipsarum tribadum tribas, Philaeni
recte, quo futuis, vocas amicam
is described as a tribas, a lesbian.
Read more about this topic: Latin Profanity, Futuere: Intercourse
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“Girls who put out are tramps. Girls who don’t are ladies. This is, however, a rather archaic usage of the word. Should one of you boys happen upon a girl who doesn’t put out, do not jump to the conclusion that you have found a lady. What you have probably found is a lesbian.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)
“Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)