The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

It is a scientific fact: whenever people are not thinking about food,
they are probably thinking about sex. These two books are about those
preoccupying subjects—or, at least, the words we use to think about
them. Although both works are by the same author, the format in each is
different. Cupboard Love is set up as a traditional alphabetical
dictionary, beginning with а la and ending with zuppa inglese. In
between are hundreds of food-related words with a fascinating story to
tell. Fortunately, Mark Morton is exactly the person to tell the story.
He is not only an assistant professor of English at the University of
Winnipeg but also the language columnist for CBC Radio’s wonky
news-information program Definitely Not the Opera. Morton’s depth of
knowledge and flair for writing ensure that the reader will want to
peruse this dictionary from cover to cover. It is not for the squeamish,
however. Readers will come to learn, for example, that the word avocado
comes from the Aztec word for testicle and that vermicelli is Italian
for “little worms.” This second edition includes new words—many
from non-European cuisines—that have become common in Canada since the
first edition.

In The Lover’s Tongue, Morton maintains the same high standards of
research and engaging writing style, but instead of ordering his content
from A to Z, he arranges it by subject. If you are the kind of person
who is ready for an erudite discussion of everything from the F-word to
the hundreds of nicknames for the penis, this is the place to find it.
Chapters include “Studs, Jades and Bitches: Terms of
Objectification,” “Two of a Kind: Words for Breasts,” “Organ
Solo: Masturbation Words,” and “The Ins and Outs of In and Out:
Copulation Words.” Although often cheeky, Morton’s prose never
crosses over into puerile. For the scholarly minded, the absence of
footnotes and an index is mildly annoying. For example, when Morton
states that the F-word was first used as an adjective in the mid-19th
century, while its first use as an adverb appeared in the 1940s, one is
forced to take him at face value instead of seeing the proof.

That minor flaw noted, if you are a word buff, these volumes should be
on your shelf.