making love

[avva]

Интересно было бы проследить, когда окончательно исчезло старое значение выражения to make love, т.е. "ухаживать", и оно стало означать только половой акт. Я раньше думал, что примерно в 40-х годах, но вот сейчас по телевизору идёт High Society с Франком Синатрой, и он там поёт:

Мaking love is quite an art,
What you require is the proper squire
To fire your heart...

— совершенно очевидно (по тону песни, по другим словам, по атмосфере итп.) используя "making love" в значении "ухаживание".

Любопытно.

Comments

Man out of time

[(Anonymous)]

Cole Porter was born in 1891. I'm quite sure his linguistic habits were fixed long before WWII, so that even writing in the '50s, when usage had changed around him and young people meant something quite different by the phrase, he would have gone on serenely using "make love" in the sense that was familiar to him. I assure you that even if I'm still writing in the 2010s, I will use, say, "hook up" in the sense I grew up with and not the sense it has acquired among the degenerate youth of today.

Steve
http://www.languagehat.com/