Adultery sounds like what it is, a kind of pastime among certain adults. But the root of it is really a shared root with adulterate, the act of, among others, degrading or diluting the purity of wine, thus symbolically an act of immorality.
For new learners of English, the association- adultery and adult- seems obvious and spontaneous (both puns immorally intended here). But one will be wrong to be thus seduced (!) to leap to a simplistic etymological deduction, because the 2 words actually came from different roots.
Morally too close, etymologically not so !
I heard a sermon twenty-odd years ago, part of a yen sermon series on the commandments.
The pastor's point was that God wasn't against sex. He invented sex, and as every farm boy knows, not just hetero sex. Â There is no commandment against fornication, and he asserted, without any evidence, it was not because he couldn't spell it.
Marriage, he said, was based on trust, not on sex. Â If you have someone as a flywheel, keeping things going smoothly in case of illness or injury, someone to guard your back, it was a tremendous asset, and anyone who adulterates that relationship is doing great ham to both persons in the marriage.
I no longer am of that same faith, and I'm not trying to convert anyone, but I thought that a well-argued sermon.
Well now, 'every farm boy knows,' is that a fact? Or did I take too liberal an interpretation of the word 'know?'
In any case, we might want to keep this site useful to underaged citizens.
Robert said
Well now, 'every farm boy knows,' is that a fact? Or did I take too liberal an interpretation of the word 'know?'
In any case, we might want to keep this site useful to underaged citizens.
The last thought is not a criterion for this site; see post 25 of this thread.
Robert said
Well now, 'every farm boy knows,' is that a fact? Or did I take too liberal an interpretation of the word 'know?'In any case, we might want to keep this site useful to underaged citizens.
It's no longer every farm boy. In the Truman administration, when I was born, most farms had livestock on them. Â These days, there are a lot of farmers who only raise grain, and their children would be deficient in biology studies..
But if you are asking whether livestock behave in that manner, the answer is yes, frequently. Familiarity breeds! Â Nor are they limited to their own species. Â Jacks were romancing mares long before some guy figured out where mules came from. Â I'll leave it to you to figure out why dogs jump up on our legs.