SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS

big casino noun, US, 1948
• Nitti, like Capone, had picked up in his
travels the occupational malady of the
underworld, euphemistically known as the
capital prize, or big casino. — San Francisco
Call-Bulletin 23rd February 1948

blue balls noun, US, 1912
• —Roger Blake, The American Dictionary of
Sexual Terms 1964

canoe inspection noun, US, 1964
a medical inspection of a woman’s genitals for
signs of a sexually transmitted disease
• —Robert A. Wilson, Playboy’s Book of
Forbidden Words 1972

package noun, US, 1950
a sexually transmitted infection, especially
gonorrhea
• —Hyman E. Goldin et al., Dictionary of
American Underworld Lingo 1950

short-arm inspection; small-arm inspection
noun, UK, 1919
an inspection for a sexually transmitted infection
Soldiers or prisoners are lined up, each holding
his penis. At the command ‘Skin it back and
milk it down’, each man ‘milks’ down his penis
from the base to the tip so that the inspecting
doctor can check for pus at the tip of the
urethra.
• There was a crowd in the kitchen, a mob in
the hall / A short-arm inspection by the
shithouse wall. — Dennis Wepman et al.,
The Life 1976

BROTHEL

boom-boom house; boom-boom parlor noun,
US, 1966
• — American-Statesman (Austin, Texas) 9th
January 1966

chicken ranch noun, US, 1973
a rural brothel
Originally the name of a brothel in LaGrange,
Texas, and then spread to more generic use.
• Hey, you don’t make a thousand bucks tax-
free by staying in bed unless you’re working
at one of those chicken ranches in Nevada.
—Joseph Wambaugh, Fugitive Nights 1992

creep house noun, US, 1913
a brothel where customers are routinely robbed
• Warnings of immorality were probably less
effective than warnings that some brothels
were creep houses or panel houses wherein
visitors were robbed of money and gold
watches. —Irving Lewis Allen, The City in
Slang 1993

grind joint noun, US, 1962
• It’s the snazziest grind joint you ever heard
of. And if you happen to catch clap from
one of the broads over there, you don’t
have to worry because it’s a higher class of
clap. —Charles Perry, Portrait of a Young
Man Drowning 1962

sugar hill noun, US, 1987
• — Maledicta Summer/Winter, 1986–1987:
‘Sexual slang: prostitutes, pedophiles,
flagellators, transvestites, and necrophiles’

PIMP

cigarette pimp noun, US, 1972
a pimp whose lack of professional pride leads
him to solicit customers for his prostitutes
• Black pimps never solicit for their women if
they are “true pimps,” and call a man who
does a cigarette pimp, popcorn pimp, or
chile pimp. —Christina and Richard Milner,
Black Players 1972

easy rider noun, US, 1914
• —Robert A. Wilson, Playboy’s Book of
Forbidden Words 1972

mack noun, US, 1903
• In being a mack, you’re supposedly the
supreme being of a man. Man rules woman.
In being a mack, you acknowledge this fact.
—Susan Hall, Gentleman of Leisure 1972

man noun, US, 1973
• Sometimes me and my man Daddy drive up
Park Avenue in his car. —Susan Hall,
Ladies of the Night 1973

pee-eye noun, US, 1960
• He nursed a new rhythm from Kid’s drums
until the prostitutes were doing the
funkybutt so sexy that even the pee-eyes
were flashing their money. —Patrick Neate,
Twelve Bar Blues 2001

popcorn pimp noun, US, 1972
a small-time pimp; a pimp who fails to live up to
pimp standards
• One of the bouncers pulled his wallet out.
Popcorn pimp, he didn’t have fifty dollars.
—Edwin Torres, After Hours 1979

CLITORIS

boy in the boat noun, US, 1916
• [T]hose who felt that the ladies should have
big bursts but could have them only in that
highly localized surface nodule known in
the trade as the vestigal phallus, or button,
or boy in the boat. —Bernard Wolfe, The
Magic of Their Singing 1961

clit noun, US, 1958
• Why, I’ve only to give my clit a tiny flick
right now and I’d be sopping. —Terry
Southern, Candy 1958

dot noun, US, 1964
• —Roger Blake, The American Dictionary of
Sexual Terms 1964

fuck button noun, US, 1969
• There were times when I could make her
come just from the feel of my lips tugging
on that little fuck-button of hers[.] —Joey V. ,
Portrait of Joey 1969

joy button noun, US, 1972
• Although it’s sometimes called “the joy
button,” the clitoris is actually more than a
single spot. —Boston Women’s Health
Book Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves 1984