by Eddie Aderne
“English dictionary of ancient Greek ‘spares no blushes’ …
The verb χέζω (chezo), translated by Liddell and Scott as ‘ease oneself, do one’s need’,
is defined in the new dictionary as ‘to defecate’ and translated as ‘to shit’; …
βίνέω (bineo) is no longer ‘inire, coire, of illicit intercourse’, but ‘fuck’; λαικάζω (laikazo),
in the 19th-century dictionary translated as ‘to wench’, is now defined as ‘perform fellatio’
and translated as ‘suck cocks’. …[One of the editors, Professor James] Diggle said.
‘We use contemporary English.’”
—The Guardian
Professor James Diggle refuses to niggle:
The verb represented as chezo
He scorns to misread as mere “doing one’s need,”
Just because the Victorians said so.
For Diggle’s not wary but contemporary;
So leave those old tomes on the shelf,
Unless you still blench at words stronger than “wench,”
In which case, pray binei yourself.