"beast with two backs" meaning in All languages combined

See beast with two backs on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: en-au-beast with two backs.ogg Forms: beasts with two backs [plural]
Etymology: First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations. Supposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais. Etymology templates: {{cal|en|fr||la beste à deux doz|nocap=1}} calque of French la beste à deux doz Head templates: {{en-noun|beasts with two backs}} beast with two backs (plural beasts with two backs)
  1. (idiomatic, euphemistic) Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position. Wikipedia link: François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, William Shakespeare Tags: euphemistic, idiomatic Categories (topical): Sex Synonyms: double-backed beast, two-backed beast Derived forms: make the beast with two backs
    Sense id: en-beast_with_two_backs-en-noun-esLxW48x Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English euphemisms, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "",
        "4": "la beste à deux doz",
        "nocap": "1"
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      "expansion": "calque of French la beste à deux doz",
      "name": "cal"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations.\nSupposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "beasts with two backs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "beasts with two backs"
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      "expansion": "beast with two backs (plural beasts with two backs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
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          "source": "w"
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sex",
          "orig": "en:Sex",
          "parents": [
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            "Reproduction",
            "Fundamental",
            "Life",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "make the beast with two backs"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 4:",
          "text": "I am one ſir, that come to tell you, your daughter, and the Moore, are now making the Beaſt with two backs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 15:",
          "text": "[H]e remained one of the few boys of his year with whom Adrian had never made the beast with two backs, or rather with whom he had never made the beast with one back and an interestingly shaped middle, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position."
      ],
      "id": "en-beast_with_two_backs-en-noun-esLxW48x",
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        ],
        [
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        ]
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        "(idiomatic, euphemistic) Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position."
      ],
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          "word": "double-backed beast"
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        {
          "word": "two-backed beast"
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      ],
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        "Gargantua and Pantagruel",
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4e/En-au-beast_with_two_backs.ogg/En-au-beast_with_two_backs.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/En-au-beast_with_two_backs.ogg"
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  "word": "beast with two backs"
}
{
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      "word": "make the beast with two backs"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "2": "fr",
        "3": "",
        "4": "la beste à deux doz",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "calque of French la beste à deux doz",
      "name": "cal"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations.\nSupposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "beasts with two backs",
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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      },
      "expansion": "beast with two backs (plural beasts with two backs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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        "English euphemisms",
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        "English terms calqued from French",
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          "ref": "c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 4:",
          "text": "I am one ſir, that come to tell you, your daughter, and the Moore, are now making the Beaſt with two backs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 15:",
          "text": "[H]e remained one of the few boys of his year with whom Adrian had never made the beast with two backs, or rather with whom he had never made the beast with one back and an interestingly shaped middle, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
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      ],
      "links": [
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          "people",
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        ],
        [
          "unite",
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          "sexual intercourse"
        ],
        [
          "missionary position",
          "missionary position"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, euphemistic) Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "euphemistic",
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      ],
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        "François Rabelais",
        "Gargantua and Pantagruel",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/En-au-beast_with_two_backs.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "double-backed beast"
    },
    {
      "word": "two-backed beast"
    }
  ],
  "word": "beast with two backs"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.