October 21, 2005

Micturation in Vogon Poetry

Semantic Compositions expresses surprise that in my discussion of Michael Tortorello's use of the verb to micturate I:

failed to mention what is without a doubt the single most common reference to a derived form of "micturate"
namely its occurrence in Vogon poetry [WARNING: this link leads to examples of Vogon poetry. Following it may be hazardous to your health.] in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Since Vogon poetry is full of words that are either very rare or non-existent I suppose that Adams' use of micturation adds marginally to my point that it is a rare, high-falutin word, but it isn't worth an awful lot as evidence. Its rarity on the web is much better evidence. Since being forced to listen to Vogon poetry is an established form of torture (in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), I thought that the addition of this marginal bit of evidence was not worth the trauma it would inflict on readers with any literary taste.

Posted by Bill Poser at October 21, 2005 01:00 AM