Greeks, with their undying pride for their linguistic heritage, often bitch about the fact that the Geneva Congress decided that English would be universally accepted as the international auxiliary language; a language we often deem too ‘poor’ in terms of vocabulary, with too many arbitrary rules when it comes to grammar and syntax, and generally inferior to our own tongue dating back a few thousands years and numbering some 700,000 words. We sneer over the accounts citing the multitude of english words, and claim its linguistic wealth only proves that English speakers have been borrowing heavily off a number of other languages, appropriating them as their own because their own language lacks the depth and terminology.
I will not discuss the various arguments advocating for or against the use of english instead of greek (or latin, or any other tongue with ancient roots and difficult rules); I will only point out that, no matter how much we like to accuse English of its lack of linguistic wealth, in fact it does have the advantage of being one of the most flexible languages in the world, and its versatility is often displayed in its effortlessness in creating new words, as well as new slang from existing words, and often humorous examples of how fun toying around with language can be, if we stop taking it too seriously.
Case in point: How do you call the rough patch of skin on the outside of your elbow? And, accordingly, how do you call the soft skin on the inside? Whoever coined these terms must have felt quite humorous indeed, because the answer is quite simple (and hilarious):
One’s the wenis, the other’s the wagina.
Granted, those two are not exactly bound to appear in valid medical textbooks; but wenis and wagina do make for delightful conversation, as demonstrated in the following examples:
“Mike…is your wagina clean?”
“It’s easier to lick your wagina than it is to lick your wenis!”
“Hey, Dan! Your wenis is showing!”
“I take pride in my gigantic wenis”
…and the list is endless!
