Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I’m no exegesist but it seems to me that Onan got a bad rap. In Genesis, Judah commanded him to make Onan’s brother’s wife pregnant. He partially complied but did not complete the transaction, choosing the more honorable coitus interruptus. For this he is branded a wanker.
The fading familiarity of the Bible means that onanism is open for reinterpretation in any case. Onanism becomes ownism or ownanism: playin’ witcha own.
Why do I (and other people) get such a kick out of reading about other peoples strange tales of ownanism?
(http://www.countvonline.co.uk/archive/archive0016.htm)
Xbox quality
Comment: Good graphics can still make people blind?
Response: I thought that was ownanism?
(http://www.edge-online.com/news/games-a … 60-quality)
Another gamer forum
Q.: what the hell is mashing?!
A.: Mashing on the keyboard in London slang means….. doing something nasty on the keyboard
A.: I am not ‘down with the hip kids and their sick yo slang shizzle’ but I assume mashing in this form refers to the act of ownism.
(http://www.cheathappens.com/show_board2 … 3&onPage=1)
Last edited by David Bird (2009-10-06 10:12:07)
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A nice find and a long overdue defense of poor Onan.
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So why was coitus interruptus more honorable? Get the pleasure but refuse to honor your brother’s right to have descendants? Under the assumption that levirate marriage was morally praiseworthy that was dishonorable—the only right he had to be having sex with his sister-in-law was to raise up seed for his brother.
.
How that got semantically transformed into masturbation is another issue; but ownanism does seem eggcornish for that meaning.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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