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In The Temptation of St. = Hilarion=20 (1834), by Dominique Louis Papety, lust attempts to = get the=20 upper hand.

CREDIT: From the book = Temptress:=20 From the Original bad girls to women on top, by Jane=20 Billinghurst

WORDS I Etymologist or not, when a guy writes a book that = explores the origins and development of "dirty" words -- and = there=20 are words in this book not even a referee has heard -- he = can expect=20 a broad range of responses.

Since the publication this fall of The Lover's Tongue: A = Merry=20 Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex, Mark Morton, = assistant=20 professor of English at the University of Winnipeg, and a = fellow=20 word junky, has experienced "many reactions from friend and = foe=20 alike -- some of them nice, some of them not so nice."

Well, surprise, surprise.

"Actually," the personable Morton says, "some of them = were=20 surprising. My wife's grandmother, who is in her eighties, = really=20 enjoyed the book. She thought it was a hoot -- except for = one thing.=20 She told me the chapter on the penis was too long and too = hard."

On the other hand the author's mother, while she was = delighted=20 with her son's previous book -- Cupboard Love: A Dictionary = of=20 Culinary Curiosities -- has had to "make adjustments" to = this=20 one.

Morton suspects his Mom is not alone in that regard.

Far from it.

"I'm sure that would be the case with most people who buy = the=20 book," he says. "I think it's the kind of book that won't be = seen on=20 the coffee table -- the way the other one was."

In 2001, Morton -- who was born and raised on a farm near = Weyburn, Sask., and educated at the University of Regina and = the=20 University of Toronto -- decided that, having already = written about=20 food, he would now write about sex.

What else is there?

"Well," Morton says, "I did consider sports. But I = settled on sex=20 -- because sex is something that almost everyone is = interested in,=20 and also because sex has been around for hundreds of years, = and so=20 it has an extensive history that I could research."

What made the process easier is that seven years ago the = Oxford=20 English Dictionary -- all 20 volumes of it -- were put on CD = Rom.

"For etymologists," Morton says, "it revolutionized the = practice=20 of researching. To that point, you could find (the Oxford = English=20 Dictionary) only in the library -- and suddenly here it was = on your=20 computer."

All told, Morton used several hundred dictionaries, among = them=20 the Dictionary of Middle English. He located words in one = dictionary=20 and then "tracked" them to another ... and another ... and = another,=20 until finally his sources (and presumably his energies) were = exhausted and it was time to write.

Well, almost.

Before he could write The Lover's Tongue, Morton had to = first=20 organize it -- no simple task for a work of this sort. "In a = sense,"=20 he says, "it was an easy book to write, but a difficult one = to=20 organize."

Unlike Cupboard Love, which consists of "listings" in=20 alphabetical order in the style of dictionary entries, The = Lover's=20 Tongue was written in sentences, and paragraphs, and = chapters.

Says Morton: "I think it becomes a more readable book = that way.=20 No one reads a dictionary cover to cover."

In this book -- and love and sex are allotted equal = space,=20 incidentally -- there are words for courting, words for the=20 genitalia, words for sexual orientation, words for the act=20 itself.

There are words, words, words. Which is an appropriate = way to=20 phrase it, because there's an awful lot of Shakespeare in = The=20 Lover's Tongue -- as there is of the "lover's tongue" in=20 Shakespeare.

"On one hand," Morton says, "it's true that there are = hundreds of=20 words in the English language that first appeared in = Shakespeare.=20 But that doesn't mean that he invented them. But I think you = could=20 say this about Shakespeare: "Whenever Shakespeare could make = a dirty=20 pun, he would. He loved bawdy language, that's for = sure."

(Parents, do you have any idea what your teenagers are = reading in=20 their high school English classes? Check out the part in = Hamlet,=20 where our hero is lying with his head in Ophelia's lap and = he asks=20 his girlfriend if she had been speaking of "country" matters = -- to=20 cite only one of countless examples in the collected works = of the=20 greatest writer in the history of the English language. But = I=20 digress.)

Apparently, two centuries in particular were especially = known for=20 this sort of thing: the 16th, which was Shakespeare's time, = and the=20 18th, which might as well have been.

A good deal of it, Morton explains, has to do with the = attitudes=20 towards censorship. Language police in the Bard's day did = not have a=20 problem with what we in our day would consider to be "dirty" = words.

(Blasphemy was another matter altogether.)

But that's the 1500's for you.

By the 1700's the most offensive words that one could = speak were=20 "arse" and "bitch" and "fart."

Today on CBC Radio, Morton says, for obscenities they = draw the=20 line at "f---" and "c---."

Of the "dirty" words that appear in The Lover's Tongue, = the=20 author's personal favourite is "merkin." Perhaps that's = because it=20 sounds a bit like "Morton," he says with a laugh.

In any case, to set the stage: cast your mind back to the = 1700's.=20 Syphilis is running rampant; indeed, there is no cure for, = or=20 reliable treatment of, veneral disease in general. Females=20 embarrassed by hair loss in the vicinity of a certain = private body=20 part find comfort in the merkin -- a "genital toupee, a = pubic wig,"=20 as Morton puts it.

"You would think they'd have more important things to = worry=20 about, under the circumstances," he says. "But it's funny = the sort=20 of things people worry about. I think it parallels cosmetic = surgery=20 in this day and age."

Those who read The Lover's Tongue will undoubtedly do so = to be=20 entertained. Morton, of course, is willing to settle for = that. But=20 he did hope the book would serve a higher purpose -- that it = would=20 draw our attention to the fact that language is taken for = granted;=20 its history, the origins and the development of words, is = either=20 unappreciated (which is bad enough) or (worse yet) ignored=20 altogether.

"We tend to think that language has just dropped down out = of the=20 sky," Morton says. "But, of course, it didn't. The words had = to have=20 come from somewhere. That's what etymology's all about."

And there are times when the etymologist has to get down = and=20 "dirty" -- all in the line of duty.

- - -

Women's traditional duties -- bearing children, rearing = family,=20 comforting and caring -- aren't nearly so interesting as = some of=20 their other roles. It is the portrayal of woman throughout = history=20 as temptress that has intrigued Saskatoon author (and = summertime=20 Simon Fraser book editing prof) Jane Billinghurst.

Billinghurst, who holds an MA in philosophy and German = language=20 from Oxford University, explores the myth of the temptress = in From=20 the Original Bad Girls to Women on Top: Temptress = (Greystone,=20 $36.95). From Eve to Salome to Madonna, the nymphet to the = vamp to=20 the matron, this vividly illustrated exploration attempts to = make=20 sense of the myth of the seductress.

It is men, argues Billinghurst, that have created the = myth ("they=20 have constructed stories that reflect their fantasies and = their=20 fears"), and women (like Madonna) who, once empowered, take = back the=20 creation and offer their own versions -- for profit or for=20 pleasure.

What is most remarkable about this little book is its = beauty.=20 Almost self-consciously tempting, its full-colour = illustrations=20 taken from art and film seduce. Its text, however, despite = making a=20 cogent argument, is not as rich as the visuals it is = packaged with.=20

This small detail hardly matters, though. What you want = this book=20 for is the women, the sirens and vamps, the mistresses and = mermaids=20 laid out in all their tempting glory.