Get a grope

By Jan Freeman, Globe Staff, 10/12/2003

IN THE BRIEF WEEKS of California's recall election campaign, = reader=20 Judy Luskin came across the word womanize more than once in = a=20 context that puzzled her. Both print and TV reporters, she = e-mailed just=20 before election day, were calling Arnold Schwarzenegger's alleged = gropings=20 womanizing. What, she asked, is the current definition of=20 womanize?

A work in progress, apparently. "To consort illicitly with = women," says=20 the Oxford English Dictionary, where the first citation is dated = 1893.=20 More than a century later, American Heritage is just as = censorious: The=20 2000 edition defines womanize as "to pursue women = lecherously."

Both summaries seem incomplete, though. How many women (and how = much=20 lechery) make one a womanizer? Is the quota different for married = guys=20 than for professional belt-notchers like Wilt Chamberlain, or does = adulterous womanizing count double? Merriam-Webster's new 11th = Collegiate=20 shows more subtlety (and less animus): Its womanize means = "to=20 pursue casual sexual relationships with multiple women."

But as Luskin suspects, womanizing and groping = are=20 different activities. Womanize is the recent one: First = used in the=20 late 16th century to mean "feminize," it developed its = skirt-chasing sense=20 only in the 19th century. Grope, though, goes all the way = back to=20 Old English. A near relative of grip, it's recorded as = early as=20 825, meaning "handle or feel something."

By the 14th century, what the OED labels its "indecent sense" = has=20 emerged. Oddly, though, the dictionary labels the lascivious = grope=20 obsolete, giving no citations after 1664's "kissed her and = groped her=20 and felt her breasts." Apparently nobody gropes in print again = till the=20 20th century, when the verb makes a comeback as sexual slang: = Jonathon=20 Green, in Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, dates the return of = groping to=20 the 1920s. The noun grope, which he calls "welcome or = unwelcome=20 fondling," is a 1940s American coinage, one that leads directly to = the=20 group gropes, first in bed and then in therapy, of the `60s = and=20 `70s.

Looking for more on groping, I turned to "The Lover's Tongue," = Mark=20 Morton's new study of the language of love and sex (Insomniac = Press,=20 $16.95). Lamentably, the book has no index; happily, searching is = made=20 easier by the cheesy but explicit chapter titles ("Go down, = Moses," "Organ=20 Solo," etc.). And while you're groping, you're sure to stumble = onto=20 something wonderful, like the 15th-century ballad in which wives = lament=20 the deficiencies of their husbands' "ware," or the fact that = Edward Lear=20 may be linked to the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, thanks = to his=20 1877 nonsense poem, "The Dong with a Luminous Nose."

In such beguiling company, grope is rather a wallflower, = except=20 when it comes up in a discussion of the most taboo word of all. = Once upon=20 a time, the c-word wasn't unspeakable, says Morton: "Both London = and=20 Oxford in the thirteenth century, had a street called = Grope----lane,"=20 where the harlots hung out.

But back to the future: Womanize, let us recall, was = Arnold's=20 own word, part of his Aug. 6 announcement of his candidacy on Jay = Leno's=20 "Tonight Show." Striking preemptively, Schwarzenegger predicted = opponents=20 would say "that I have no experience and that I am a womanizer and = . . . a=20 terrible guy." Womanizer may not be a classy term, but it = sure=20 beats groper, especially if you're a Hollywood action hero = with a=20 history of horndoggery.

If the governor-elect chose womanizer in hopes of = heading off=20 worse language, he failed, of course. Grope not only fit = the=20 allegations of his accusers, it's a punchier word all around: = shorter,=20 blunter, more tactile, less abstract. As it turned out, nobody = cared=20 whether Arnold had indulged in consensual womanizing. It was the = unwelcome=20 groping that forced an apology, in which the candidate = tried to=20 explain his behavior as misjudged but merry rowdiness, = seventh-grade=20 bra-snapping on steroids: Not sexual harassment, just kidding.

Does that redefinition improve matters? Political blogger = Mickey Kaus,=20 who voted for Arnold, thinks not. "He's not a groper the way = Clinton was a=20 masher -- Schwarzenegger seems to actually have a cruel streak," = Kaus=20 wrote last week on Slate.com. "With women, there's a sexual = component --=20 but there are plenty of stories of him humiliating men." Kaus = would prefer=20 lechery to mere bullying, but he suspects his candidate is an=20 equal-opportunity harasser, kicking sand in the face of 90-pound = weaklings=20 both male and female. Californians must be hoping that from now = on,=20 feeling his way through the mazes of government will be the only = groping=20 Arnold has time for. E-mail freeman@globe.com. For a month's = worth of=20 The Word, visit www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/freeman.

	THIS STORY HAS = BEEN=20 FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING