beast with two backs

English

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.

Pronunciation

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Noun

beast with two backs (plural beasts with two backs)

1. (idiomatic, euphemistic) Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 311:

     I am one Sir, that comes to tell you, your Daughter and the Moore, are now making the Beaſt with two backs.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, →OCLC, page 22:

     […] he 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 […]

Synonyms

• double-backed beast
• two-backed beast
• See also Thesaurus:copulation

Derived terms

• make the beast with two backs