pornography
Etymology
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Etymology
From French pornographie, from Ancient Greek πορνογράφος, from πορνεία ("fornication, prostitution") + γράφω ("I depict").
Pronunciation Nounpornography (uncountable)
The explicit literary or visual depiction of sexual subject matter; any display of material of an erotic nature. [from mid-19th c.] - Many sites, including Wikipedia block pornography from all articles
- 1929, D. H. Lawrence, Pornography and Obscenity, pamphlet, republished in 1998, Michael Herbert (editor), D. H. Lawrence: Selected Critical Writings, Oxford University Press, [https://books.google.com.au/books?id=XcK1kV9asvAC&pg=PA294&dq=%22What+is+pornography+to+one+man,+is+the+laughter+of+genius+to+another%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI3emm2_TWAhUFKpQKHbvCBqEQ6AEISTAG#v=onepage&q=%22What%20is%20pornography%20to%20one%20man%2C%20is%20the%20laughter%20of%20genius%20to%20another%22&f=false page 294],
- What is pornography to one man is the laughter of genius to another.
- (by extension) The depiction of (non-sexual) subject matter so that it elicits feelings analogous to erotic pleasure; any such depiction.
- 1973, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 19, in Gravity's Rainbow, 1st US edition, New York: Viking Press, →ISBN, part 1: Beyond the Zero, page 155 ↗:
- "It's true," Vanya now, "look at the forms of capitalist expression. Pornographies of love, erotic love, Christian love, boy-and-his-dog, pornographies of sunsets, pornographies of killing, and pornographies of deduction — ahh, that sigh when we guess the murderer — all these novels, these films and songs and they lull us with, they're approaches, more comfortable and less so, to that Absolute Comfort." A pause to allow Rudi a quick and sour grin, "The self-induced orgasm."
- (usually, humorous) The graphic, detailed, often gratuitous depiction of something.
- French: pornographie
- German: Pornografie
- Italian: pornografia
- Portuguese: pornografia
- Russian: порногра́фия
- Spanish: pornografía
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
