focative:

William Shakespeare's subtle Latinish pun on fuck in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Although Will never used the word fuck there is no doubt that he knew it and contrived deliberate puns on it such as the one on FOCATIVE in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Act IV, Scene 1, lines 31-34) in which the somewhat stupid Sir Hugh Evans is quizzing the even stupider William Page on his Latin. - Sir Evans: 'Leave your prabbles, 'oman. What is the focative case, William?' - William Page: 'O, vocativo, O...' - Sir Evans: 'Remember, William, focative is caret.' - Mistress Quickly: 'And that's a good root.' In The Straight Dope (www.straightdope.com) Cecil Adams explains: 'Caret (literally, "it is missing") equals carrot equals root equals penis equals f*ckative case, get it? Don't worry, I didn't either. They were going to hang Shakespeare for this pitiful effort, but he pleaded temporary inanity.' Another famous Shakespeare pun is the one on cunt and pee(ing) in Twelfth Night when Malvolio attempts to decipher the handwriting of a letter: 'By my life, this is my lady's hand! These be her very C's, her U's, 'N her T's; and thus makes she her great P's.'
See Also: focative

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