Talk:sport one's oak
Latest comment: 6 months ago by This, that and the other in topic RFV discussion: November 2023
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"(intransitive, Britain, public-school slang) Of a man: to masturbate." Seems plausible enough, but I'm not finding any qualifying quotations apart from the Fiennes one already in the entry. I have a feeling that Fiennes was mistaken. — Sgconlaw (talk) 15:57, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- Could it be a euphemism based on the closed-door meaning in Etymology 1. That still would mean it needs attestation. DCDuring (talk) 20:12, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- @DCDuring: it certainly could, but apart from the Fiennes quotation in the entry I failed to find anything else indicating the term is used in this way. Maybe others (*ahem* @Kiwima) will have better luck. — Sgconlaw (talk) 20:18, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- I could find two ambiguous citations to add to Fiennes, one about masturbation, and one about homosexual liaisons:
- 1984, Hallam Tennyson, The Haunted Mind: An Autobiography, page 46:
- Over the next eighteen months we sported our oaks with great frequency .
- 2014, R. V. Cassill, Clem Anderson:
- He brewed tea each afternoon on his "spirit lamp" (sold at the student co-op as an alcohol burner), kept Scotch-type whisky in his cupboard, "tutored" with a Jewish boy from Brooklyn (actually the boy ghosted all his science and math work), and "sported the oak" when, as Clem conjectured later, he required a session of masturbation to the tune of Beardsley illustrations.
- Kiwima (talk) 03:18, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
- I could find two ambiguous citations to add to Fiennes, one about masturbation, and one about homosexual liaisons:
- Right. Not every euphemism is attestable. In context (public school, etc) this might be a common colloquial euphemism. It could cover lots of things best done in private, like studying and sleeping, but also using drugs, any kind of sex, etc. DCDuring (talk) 20:25, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- Having some familiarity with public school culture, I'm pretty sure the claim that it comes from sport (“to amuse oneself”) is wrong, since it's intransitive in that sense. Much more likely that it means sport (“to display”). oak is obviously a play on wood (“penis”). But yes, if this is real, it's almost certainly intended as a pun on the main sense. Theknightwho (talk) 21:24, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Theknightwho: well, the OED has a few transitive senses of sport which are absent from our entry, including "(obsolete) to play or toy with (something)"... — Sgconlaw (talk) 22:07, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Sgconlaw Maybe, but I'm unconvinced because going by the examples they give the best equivalent is toy, as in "toying with their consciences" or "toying with a mouse", so the connotations are quite different. On the other hand, the "display" sense can also be used to mean "wield", as in "sporting a bat" - that seems to be the sense that's being used here. Theknightwho (talk) 22:14, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Theknightwho: OK. Anyway, let's see if it passes verification. — Sgconlaw (talk) 22:33, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Sgconlaw Maybe, but I'm unconvinced because going by the examples they give the best equivalent is toy, as in "toying with their consciences" or "toying with a mouse", so the connotations are quite different. On the other hand, the "display" sense can also be used to mean "wield", as in "sporting a bat" - that seems to be the sense that's being used here. Theknightwho (talk) 22:14, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Theknightwho: well, the OED has a few transitive senses of sport which are absent from our entry, including "(obsolete) to play or toy with (something)"... — Sgconlaw (talk) 22:07, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- Having some familiarity with public school culture, I'm pretty sure the claim that it comes from sport (“to amuse oneself”) is wrong, since it's intransitive in that sense. Much more likely that it means sport (“to display”). oak is obviously a play on wood (“penis”). But yes, if this is real, it's almost certainly intended as a pun on the main sense. Theknightwho (talk) 21:24, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- This is probably just Fiennes's dirty mind. The original source by Shackleton reads: "Blankets were served out to hang in the front of the cubicle, in case the inhabitants wanted at any time to 'sport their oak'" [1]. This can imply masturbating in the same way that saying a guy wants some "alone time" can imply it nowadays, but the literal meaning appears to just be hanging up blankets as a "do not disturb" thing as per ety 1. Anyway if masturbation was in fact the understood meaning I very much doubt it would've been published uncensored in 1909. Another source commenting on the same passage says "This wasn't quite as interesting as it sounds: it simply meant to be alone" [2]. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 23:08, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
- I agree -- I think this is just another case of Etymology 1, which is an easy one to cite. Sporting one's oak means to close one's door to visitors, and in a college setting, that could be because you want to study, but it could also mean one was enjoying the company of a sexual partner or masturbating. Kiwima (talk) 02:45, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Al-Muqanna: the quotation from Shackleton was a nice find. As I suspected, it does look like Feinnes read too much into Shackleton's sentence. @Kiwima: regarding the two quotations you found, both of them seem to be straightforward applications of sense 1. As regards the 1984 one, the relevant passage is "He chuckled, took a pair of compasses and jammed them into the door above the latch. This was called 'sporting the oak' and was the recognized way of locking oneself in. Over the next eighteen months we sported our oaks with great frequency." I think the use of the term sporting one's oak in those quotations simply refers to closing a door so as not to be disturbed, regardless of what happens behind the closed doors. — Sgconlaw (talk) 18:21, 18 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Sgconlaw I strongly suspect it's a double entendre, but I don't think it's a supporting citation, no. Theknightwho (talk) 18:33, 18 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Theknightwho: the 1984 quotation? Could well be. Anyway, it doesn't look like etymology 2 can be verified so I'm calling it failed. — Sgconlaw (talk) 18:58, 18 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Sgconlaw I strongly suspect it's a double entendre, but I don't think it's a supporting citation, no. Theknightwho (talk) 18:33, 18 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Al-Muqanna: the quotation from Shackleton was a nice find. As I suspected, it does look like Feinnes read too much into Shackleton's sentence. @Kiwima: regarding the two quotations you found, both of them seem to be straightforward applications of sense 1. As regards the 1984 one, the relevant passage is "He chuckled, took a pair of compasses and jammed them into the door above the latch. This was called 'sporting the oak' and was the recognized way of locking oneself in. Over the next eighteen months we sported our oaks with great frequency." I think the use of the term sporting one's oak in those quotations simply refers to closing a door so as not to be disturbed, regardless of what happens behind the closed doors. — Sgconlaw (talk) 18:21, 18 November 2023 (UTC)
- I agree -- I think this is just another case of Etymology 1, which is an easy one to cite. Sporting one's oak means to close one's door to visitors, and in a college setting, that could be because you want to study, but it could also mean one was enjoying the company of a sexual partner or masturbating. Kiwima (talk) 02:45, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
- @DCDuring: it certainly could, but apart from the Fiennes quotation in the entry I failed to find anything else indicating the term is used in this way. Maybe others (*ahem* @Kiwima) will have better luck. — Sgconlaw (talk) 20:18, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
@Sgconlaw RFVs should remain open for one month. Was there a reason to effectively speedy delete this definition? This, that and the other (talk) 01:26, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
- @This, that and the other: I figured that since one of our best quotation finders, @Kiwima, had not found enough unambiguous quotations, it was highly unlikely that anyone else would. Happy to restore that sense if qualifying quotations can be found by 16 December. — Sgconlaw (talk) 19:05, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
- @Sgconlaw fine, I just wouldn't like to see a habit made of it. This, that and the other (talk) 20:24, 19 November 2023 (UTC)