I know the word 'privet' is a sort of shrub or plant of some sort. Are there are any sexual references to it? I am studying the book Spies by Michael Frayn, with a lot of references to it.
2007-01-05 11:02:07 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
hey thats real clever! thanks oddball59!
2007-01-05 11:05:02 · update #1
If you're not mis-reading 'privet' for "privy" or "private" - all three coming from the same source - then, not directly. And I'm an English graduate.
But, the idea of what was in England "The privet hedge" was to create a "private" area, where things could go on "in privy"/'secret'.
(See what I mean - all threee from same origin?)
"Assignations" or meetings between lovers, secluded by the privet hedge, are common in English literature, even if 'privet' isn't actually specified - 'hedge' = 'privet hedge'.
It just means 'in concealment' or 'concealing'.
2007-01-05 11:10:57 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Privet was originally the name for the European semi-evergreen shrub Ligustrum vulgare, and later also for the more reliably evergreen Ligustrum ovalifolium (Japanese privet), used extensively for privacy hedging (hence "privet", private). The term is now used for all members of the genus Ligustrum, which includes about 40-50 species of evergreen, semi-evergreen or deciduous shrubs and small trees, native to Europe, north Africa, Asia and Australasia, with the centre of diversity in China, the Himalaya, Japan and Taiwan. They are placed in the olive family Oleaceae.
The flowers are small and fragrant and borne in panicles. They have four curled-back petals and two high stamens with yellow or red anthers, between which is the low pistil; the petals and stamens fall off after the flower is fertilized, leaving the pistil in the calyx tube. Flowering starts after 330 growing degree days. The fruits, borne in clusters, are small purple to black drupes, poisonous for man but readily eaten by many birds. In favorable growing conditions, individual shrubs may produce thousands of fruits. Privet is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Common Emerald, Common Marbled Carpet, Copper Underwing, The Engrailed, Mottled Beauty, Scalloped Hazel, Small Angle Shades, The V-pug and Willow Beauty. No sexual references I know about, except that a woman's BUSH, is their vagina or pubic hair.
2007-01-05 11:04:43 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes. A privet is a hedge. A hedge is like a bush and a bush refers to a female's pubic hair!
2007-01-05 11:04:14 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Privet is a british slang for hair. So if you take what a privet is: a bush and put the slang with it; bush hair - - my guess would be pubic hair.
2007-01-05 11:11:18 · answer #4 · answered by CluelessOne 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
not really but the latin word it stems from(excuse the pun) is ligustrum vulgare! maybe they were doing it behind the hedge,vulgarly!
2007-01-05 11:10:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It could be written in dialect, meant to mean "private" as in "private body part"?
2007-01-05 11:04:47 · answer #6 · answered by Mickey Mouse Spears 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋