Req: "dirty" words in Sanskrit

[Miroslav Rozehnal]

On Fri, 1 Nov 1996, Allen Thrasher wrote:

> The y-root is the equivalent of the f-word.  Otherwise there are no taboo
> words I can think of, indeed one of the oddities of Sanskrit is that the
> vocabulary for sexual parts or things has no particular distinction into
> the obscene, the neutral, the euphuistic, the medical, etc.; the words are
> unmarked that way.  

Well, if I remember well, in the Vinaya of the Pali Canon it is said 
(somewhere; sorry I do not have the refference) that it is not allowable 
for monks to address each other in terms like "you penis", "you vagina" etc.
Maybe these could have been marked as "dirty words" at that time.

Hope it helps,
M. Rozehnal
-----------------------------------------

Miroslav Rozehnal
Mandarin Training Center
National Taiwan Normal University
Taipei
Taiwan, R.O.C.
E-mail: m63051 at mtc.ntnu.edu.tw
see: http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/e-cbs.htm