A few thoughts for Valentine's Day

Poor Aphrodite ...

Venereal [From Dictionary.com]
\Ve*ne"re*al\, a. [L. venereus, venerius, fr. Venus, Veneris, Venus, the goddess of love. See Venerate.] 1. Of or pertaining to venery, or sexual love; relating to sexual intercourse. EXAMPLE: Into the snare I fell Of fair, fallacious looks, venereal trains, Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life. --Milton.

Venereal used to be a respected adjective that didn't solicit any snickers when spoken in polite company.

Now, of course, it is a disease and you can't get that association out of your mind. Which is unfortunate because I collect Terms of Venery.

Venery [From Dictionary.com]
ven?er?y2 ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vn-r) n. Archaic pl. ven?er?ies
The act or sport of hunting; the chase.

Terms of Venery or "collective nouns" are used to describe a group of something (originally used in the context of the hunt when you might be chasing a Herd of Harts or a Rafter of Turkeys or a Skulk of Foxes).

The terms have evolved from simple groups of animals to very "punny" collective nouns, e.g. a Cuddle of Homecoming Queens or a QWERTY of Typists or a Pestle of Pharmacists. There is a wonderful book: An Exaltation of Larks by James Lipton that describes the history of these words and gives more than 1000 examples.

And another thing ...

"openly gay" .. as in "Joe Smith, a Democrat from Hometown, USA and the only openly gay member of the State Senate said ... "

Who uses that? Who says "openly heterosexual" or "openly straight"? I always feel that when "openly gay" is used that there is an implied licentiousness -- as if it really says "Joe Smith, a Democrat from Hometown, USA who was having lurid man-on-man sex on the senate floor said ..."