Читать книгу Bees Knees and Barmy Armies - Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day - Harry Oliver - Страница 15

This alliterative phrase rolls off the tongue when we require a euphemism for sex. For hundreds of years the phrase was used to refer to nature in general. Then, it seems, at some point in the early twentieth century it came to mean something a little more specific, all thanks to the education system. Children needed to be told the facts of life, but in the past prudish educators did not think it proper to speak directly about the mechanics of human reproduction and so analogies were used instead. Children were told how the female bird lays eggs and how bees pollinate flowers. In this way it was hoped that they would somehow get the message about ‘the birds and the bees’ and not ask too many awkward questions.