Talk:Fanny

Does this need to be disambiguated?

Does this need to be disambiguated? -- Zoe — Preceding undated comment added 02:10, 27 September 2002

From what? British slang for 'vagina'? Or is there something else also? ... Maybe so, I don't know. We have an article on fuck. --KQ — Preceding undated comment added 02:12, 27 September 2002

Well, either that or the American slang for rear end. -- Zoe — Preceding undated comment added 02:19, 27 September 2002

Oh yeh. That too. How about this: It could be disambiguated from the 1932 film directed by Marc Allegret, also based on the Marcel Pagnol play. That would keep body parts out of it entirely.  :-) (and no, I haven't seen either version, though I've read good things about the older one). --KQ 03:48 Sep 27, 2002 (UTC)

Body parts

Vagina

I notice that another user (incorrectly) labelled the insertion of the "vagina" usage as vandalism. This is still in common use in the United Kingdom. It was removed a while back on the basis that "Wikipedia is not a slang dictionary", and I did not reinsert it when I noticed this. However, I've been given the opportunity to reconsider the situation. Wikipedia has a *whole article* dedicated to the slang use of the word "pussy" for the same thing, and I'm not even proposing putting any more than a naked disambig entry for the equivalent use for "fanny". It's not as widespread as the word "pussy", but it's still common and well-documented enough to warrant disambig-page inclusion. It's reasonable to expect that someone might come across the word "fanny" in this context and require a disambig as for any other word and/or usage.

Therefore, I am putting an entry for this usage in the disambig article. Fourohfour 18:38, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

The bee gees had a hit song with the word "fanny"--fanny be tender with my love--in it. I'm suspicious that that term is considered offensive —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.17.170.4 (talk • contribs) .

fanny n. 1. *(sl.) buttons 2. ||(vulg.) female genitals. [20th c.; orig.unkn.]

(my emphasis); from The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Seventh Edition (1982)

See also wordnet.princeton.edu's definition online.

Did you use Google to confirm/refute the claim? Here's a simple search that comes up with lots of confirmations of the meaning.

As to whether the British use of the term is "offensive"; well, that's a matter of opinion. The article didn't claim that it was; it's less offensive than the c-word, that's for sure.

Fourohfour 18:28, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

The slang term is indeed very common the UK but it does not mean the vagina! It means the vulva, the difference being that the vagina is an internal part of the female genital organs whereas the vulva is the actual organs. The word fanny in the UK means female sexual organs. I have changed the entry to reflect this. --212.159.22.108 (talk) 19:01, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

This isn't correct as the word 'vagina' is commonly used to refer to the entire female genital organs. 'Fanny' is a slang word for the commonly used word of 'vagina'. It may not be medically correct but to everyone in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand it means vagina!

Buttocks

With the addition of the vagina disambig, I thought it only proper to include the American use of the word meaning buttocks as well. The wiki article "buttocks" also links directly to fanny, thus I thought it appropriate to have it included here, as otherwise I feel the article would be incomplete and possibly cause confusion to those who were unaware of the useage difference. Livingston 10:22, 04 May 2006 (UTC)

Fanny is synonymous with buttocks in Canada too. Wikicali00    36:0 08:33, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Purpose of Dab'n

I'm not sure we had gotten clear by 2.5 years ago that "disambig article" is a contradiction in terms, but we are now. A dab is not an article, and more to the point the theoretical potential for an article on "fanny" with the meaning of vagina or buttocks (since we have one on "fuck") is irrelevant. The purpose of a that kind of Dab entry on the "Fanny" Dab would be to help someone who would look for encyclopedic information on the vagina or the buttocks by typing in "fanny"; they are too rare to consider. If you want to write a Fuck-like article on "fanny" -- i.e., one titled Fanny (body part) that provides not anatomical info but verifiable info on word usage, presumably including linguist's opinion about why the usage differs with country -- give it a shot; if it can survive AfD, it should get a Dab entry on the accompanying Dab page.
--Jerzy•t 20:22 & 21:21, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Removed RedLink'd entries

Each entry among the following should, when an article is written for it, be copied to the accompanying Dab page and, in many cases, edited there to conform to MoSDab), and the copy struck thru.
--Jerzy•t 21:17, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

• Fanny Hackabout-Jones, title character of Fanny, Being The True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones, novel by Erica Jong. (1980)
• Fanny (1922 film), Mexican
• Fanny (1932 film), French
• Fanny (1933 film), Italian
• Fanny, a.k.a. Fanny (1995 film), Czech
• Fanny (2000 film) is a 2000 made-for-TV French film written by Marcel Pagnol and directed by Nicolas Ribowski
• Fear Of Fanny (2004), a UK touring stageplay based on the life and loves of TV Chef Fanny Craddock, which evolved to become a BBC television drama.
• Fanny (Be Tender With My Love) (1975 song)
• Fanny (poem), an 1819 poem by Fitz-Greene Halleck
• Fanny, West Virginia, USA

--Jerzy•t 21:17, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

including a gloss for "pussy" as a nickname

(Moved from my talk page.)

Where's your evidence that Pussy is used as an English nickname? Fanny is a nickname, but we already mention that elsewhere in the list. The article Pussy makes no mention of its use as an English nickname. Meters (talk) 18:40, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

I believe you are mistaken. The article contains an explanation, citing no less than the OED:

The Oxford English Dictionary gives as the first meaning of the noun: "Chiefly colloq[uial]. A girl or woman exhibiting characteristics associated with a cat, esp[ecially] sweetness or amiability. Freq[uently] used as a pet name or as a term of endearment." The examples it cites from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries are not sexual. Another example, not cited by the OED, is one of the main characters of E. Nesbit's Five Children and It - Jane, nicknamed Pussy by her siblings.

Without much trouble I have found multiple further examples, from the UK and US, which I may add later. (For my own reference, as much as anything: "Pussy", in two chapters Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Volume 20; "Nicknames: A Comedietta, in One Act" by Harriet L. Childe-Pemberton; "Everyone Called Her Pussy" in The Writings of an Old Virginia Country Boy.) In short, yes, "Pussy" was a nickname. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 23:07, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

I don't want to edit-war, but previously the item read:

• Pussy, also a slang term for "vulva" and a female nickname

and I think that providing both meanings helps readers to see the double connection to "fanny". Carbon Caryatid (talk) 22:16, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for digging up the references, but the fact that "Pussy" has been used as a nickname is not a good reason to add the information to this page. This DAB page is about "Fanny", not about "Pussy" and the relevant connection is that they are both euphemisms for the same bit of anatomy. It's irrelevant that the two terms have both been used as female nicknames since they are not nicknames for each other. Pussy is not a nickname for someone who is called Fanny, and Fanny is not a nickname for someone who is called Pussy.

Looking at this again, I think that the entire See also entry for "Pussy" should be removed. The connection between the two words when used as euphemisms is already discussed in the linked article vulva (from the UK slang section of the DAB), which is where it belongs.

By the way, next time you move someone's thread from your talk page to an article talk page for further discussion you should inform them.Meters (talk) 22:58, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

I'm glad you enjoyed the references, but I didn't have to do much digging, because your first contention ("The article Pussy makes no mention of its use as an English nickname.") is factually incorrect. I agree that "See also" should not need to list all the articles we have on alternative terms for the vulva. The point linking the terms under consideration is that they are the only two English words (to the best of my knowledge) that are *both* slang for vulva and an entirely acceptable girls' name. A reader who has come to this DAB page would be well-served to have this unique connection made plain. From the relevant MOS page: "Some entries may belong in a "See also" section at the bottom of the page: Terms which can be confused with Title, for example New Market and Newmarket"; the next example is "Moss, see also bog". Given the confusion already demonstrated about the different British and American uses of "fanny", it seems sensible to clarify, clarify, clarify. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 14:57, 6 September 2016 (UTC)