Oral Sex - Cultural Attitudes - Terminology and Slang

Terminology and Slang

There are many words describing oral sex, including euphemisms and slang. Like all aspects of sexuality, there exists a very large number of variations on a theme, a few common ones are given here:

• Giving head – A common slang term for giving oral sex to either a man or woman is "giving head", from the term "head job" (in contrast to "hand job", manual stimulation). A play on the slang term "head" resulted in the slang term "brains", or "brain salad surgery", "domes" or "getting domes."
• Plate – A once common British rhyming slang for "fellate" that arose in the gay slang language of Polari that spread in the 1960s. The term is less common today.
• Cunnilingus is also sometimes referred to as "muff diving", "eating out" or "poon-job", a slang term and a cunnilingus variant of "blow job", where "poon" is short for poontang or punani.
• Additionally, in lesbian culture several common slang terms used are "carpet munching", "giving lip", "lip service" or "tipping the velvet" (a faux-"Victorian" expression invented by novelist Sarah Waters).

Other slang terms for oral sex include "going down on" (female and male), "licking out" and "muff diving" (female), "blow job" (male), "dome" (female and male),, "sucking off" (male) "playing the skin flute" (male recipient), "rolling cigars" (male recipient), "lolly-gagging" (gay male-on-male), "gaining knowledge" (male recipient) and "bust down" (male). Forced fellatio is often called "Egyptian Rape" or simply "Egyptian". This goes back to the time of the Crusades when Mamluks were alleged to force their Christian captives to do this.