Promiscuity Part 1

One reader asked if I would comment on promiscuity. Oh boy! That’s a topic that could be fraught with all sorts of danger!

How one would view promiscuity depends on more than one factor. I think we need to look at a dictionary or a thesaurus first. This will give us a definition and other words to use for this same status.

My dictionary of choice (because it’s all I have at home) is Webster’s New World Dictionary, Second College Edition. It’s old, but I don’t imagine the meaning has changed that much over the past decade or so. The first definition given there states: “Consisting of different elements mixed together or mingled without sorting or discrimination.

Well, my goodness! That could mean a lot of things, couldn’t it? Sometimes I am promiscuous in my cooking. I just mix up a bunch of stuff indiscriminately in a big old cast iron skillet or a large stew pot and it turns out to be a delicious goulash. Maybe I should rename it “Fanny’s Promiscuous Stew.”

Sometimes my garden is rather promiscuous, too. I just toss a bunch of seeds in a little section outside and they all pollinate together to bloom. Pollinating each other sounds a bit sexy, if you ask me.

Since the first definition is not exactly what I think my reader was talking about, let’s try the second definition that old man Webster came up with. Here he says “Characterized by a lack of discrimination.” Anything to go on here?

Of course, that might lead us to wonder what “discrimination” means. A girl could get lost in the vast world of research if she followed every word, searching for a clearer meaning.

Okay, on to the scholarly Mr. Webster’s third definition. He states that promiscuous means “without plan or purpose, or casual.” Let’s follow that one for a minute or two. Does that mean if I’m casually having afternoon tea with someone, I’m promiscuous?

Or perhaps it means that if I go for a walk on a sunny afternoon “without plan or purpose” I’m being promiscuous? If that’s the case, then I’m often promiscuous because I like not being tied to a schedule or having to follow someone else’s agenda.

Since Webster hasn’t done much to satisfy the generally accepted meaning of promiscuous, let’s check my thesaurus (a little more up to date than my dictionary). The first word there is abandoned, followed by words such as easy, licentious, loose, unbridled, wanton, wild. Those are the meanings most people give to the word promiscuous.

Putting all of this together, I came up with this thought. Using Webster’s definitions and the first word in Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, how about someone who is feeling abandoned, therefore without plan or purpose, decides to mix things up?

Oh, what a devious mind Fanny has!

I have other thoughts on promiscuity and I’ll give those to you next week. In the meantime, enjoy life to the fullest! Life lasts too long not to have a good time.

I blow you a kiss ~ ~ ~
Fanny