LH reader/commenter Martin writes:
Back in 1971, I worked for a few months in a flower bulb packing and shipping operation in New Jersey, alongside a bunch of pretty raunchy women who were fond of the expression “Kiss my taint!” They explained to me the taint is the area between anus and genitals, because “T’aint the one hole and t’aint the other hole.” […]
“Taint” was included in E. E. Landy’s Underground Dictionary (page 181) in 1972, with the same etymology as that supplied by my New Jersey co-workers in 1971.
I responded: “Amazingly, it’s in the OED (entry published 2017 [coarse slang (originally U.S.). The perineum.])… with the same etymology!” To wit:
Representing a colloquial pronunciation of it ain’t < it pron. (compare α forms at it pron., adj., & n.¹) + ain’t at be v. α forms.
For the semantic motivation see quot. 1955. [“My prick was throbbing somewhere around her taint—you know what a woman’s taint is: ‘taint asshole and ‘taint cunt,” ‘W. Baron’, Play this Love with Me v. 62]
As Martin says, a rare case where the folk etymology seems to be right.
Unrelated, but I’ve run across the odd surname Sencindiver, whose origin seems to be unknown; this site says “The family name Sencindiver does not have a known European origin. The meaning of the name is not clear but it is possibly of American or Native American origin.”
That’s wiktionary’s etymology 3, for which it gives the same account while hedging with “Reportedly …” Etymologies 1 & 2 (both from Old French) lack a hedge. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/taint
If one wants to derive it from Old French, one has to explain why it isn’t attested until 1955, and in US English at that.
The Old French etymologies are for different senses or, if you like, for different words that happen to be homophones and homographs of the one in question.
Ah, so they are.
Re Sencindiver, maybe ex Simpsendorfer? Dunno how that worked.
https://www.wvgw.net/berkeley/sencindfambio.html
From Paddy’s cite, this is the one of the more dramatic cases of robbing the cradle I’ve seen:
>In Brettach, on June 11, 1739, Martin Simpsendorfer was born, and his wife, Hannah, was born August 2, 1843, in Douglas township, now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
But aside from the typo (s/b 1743), it does seem clear. They followed a standard path of German immigrants into a German protestant part of Pennsylvania and the pronunciation eroded (and the spelling was corrupted along a different path) as they mingled with Anglo folk in West Va., particularly in the 3rd and 4th syllables:
Simpsendorfer
Sencenderger
Sencendiver and Sencindiver
I worked with a Sencindiver in Virginia in the ’90s. It was her husband’s name.
A tree on Family Search shows the first one, Col. Jacob Morgan Sencindiver (b. Berkeley, VA, 1807–1877), son of Cpt. Joh. Ludwig Sensenderfer (b. New Hanover, PA, 1776–1867), son of Johann Martin Sensenderfer (b. Brettach, Württemberg, 1739–1784), son of Johannes Simpfendörfer (1715–1742), and then it goes as far back as Hanns Simpfendörfer II (b. Ingelfingen, Württemberg, 1575–1634), son of Hanns Simpfendörfer I (b. Schönbronn (Buch am Wald), Bavaria, 1550–1590).
So Simpfen- became Sensen- already in Germany. Anything to do with the (unrelated to each other) Sinzendorf and Zinzendorf noble families of Austria?
…or maybe Simpfendörfer and Sensenderfer are unrelated, except by some over-enthusiastic genealogist.
So Simpfen- became Sensen- already in Germany.
I very much doubt that. A bit of internet research finds no evidence of Sensenderfer in Germany now. It’s more likely that Johann Martin’s surname was changed at some point after his emigration to America, and that is why it is recorded in that form in this family tree.
I had a brief misapprehension that Play this Love with Me had at least 62 volumes.
I bet so.
Would surprise me; /ns/ and /nts/ are consistently distinguished in Austria, as are /en/ and /in/; and Sense means “scythe”, a major export product in south-central Upper Austria, so much so that an older form gave its name to a whole mountain range: Sengsengebirge.
taint is also commonly used in the bicycling world, and that’s the etymology I heard, used for both male and female. The struggle to find a saddle that doesn’t cause taint pain is real.. cf link from my name.
also, an excuse to quote the world’s shortest erotic poem,
oh how i would like
to be the seat on a bike
– WH Auden
@DK
“saddle” works better metrically than “seat” for me. Car seats and bike saddles….But I do not find the poem on line.
See Kabaservice, wherein we discussed European names phonetically respelled by Pennsylvanians.
A bit of internet research finds no evidence of Sensenderfer in Germany now
Actually, a bit of internet research leads you to living people in Germany with the name Sensendorf, which for practical purposes is the same name (remember that the spelling etc of names was only fixed in the 19th century.
Despite what the FamilySearch tree implies, I suspect the spelling “Sensenderfer” for Sensendörfer is American-born.
Is Simpfen- real? Or is that a misinterpretation of a 17th-century long s?
I would find a transition from -mpf- to -s- surprising.
The Simpfens! Starring Hömer, Märge, Bärt, Krüsty…
s/b Krüfty. Lifa, too.
Or someone replaced a semantically obscure Simpfe with the common word Sense.
And the e in -derfer may simply represent an unrounded dialect pronunciation.
There are plenty of present-day German Simpfendörfers.
And the e in -derfer may simply represent an unrounded dialect pronunciation.
Is there such a dialect?
Over half of all German dialects do that, including practically all non-Swiss ones that have /pf/.
Spellings of names rather tend to hypercorrect, though (i.e. use ö, ü, eu instead of e, i, ei).
The struggle to find a saddle that doesn’t cause taint pain is real.. cf link from my name[@DougK].
As it says at the link, padded bike shorts is the answer. Well worth the expense ( and cheaper than a fancy padded saddle).
I am reminded of John Betjeman’s simple, yet moving lyric:
You can see why he was appointed Poet Laureate. Mastery of form and content.
[Ah. Ninja’d (at some time depth) by Doug K (clearly a kindred spirit.) However, I believe my version and attribution to be canonical, though it is said that both Auden and Louis MacNeice* had some input. The il miglior fabbro thing, I expect.]
* An Eclogue for Christmas is the best ever Christmas poem by an atheist. Actually, one of the best Christmas poems by anybody.
The Simpfens!
a show worthy of the name graining!
@David Eddyshaw: Wikipedia says that Betjeman and W. H. Auden knew each other. So perhaps this is no coincidence.
One of Evelyn Waugh’s letters talks about meeting Auden (whom he did not know, and whose politics were not exactly congenial to him, to say the least.) They got on pretty well, by the sound of it. I’ve always been encouraged by that, both being literary heroes of mine. Also, perhaps less surprised than Waugh was.
Betjeman was a much better poet than he sometimes pretended to be. He has sneaky depths under the camp posturing.