0

The situation is like this. A girl named Letitia was about to buy a house with atrium, but she found a naked divinity statue of Hecate, a goddess of the moon (it could be guessed because there was a crescent moon shaped tiara in her hair) in the center of the atrium. Letitia who didn't like this centerpiece because of the obsceneness, circled around to the statue’s rear and said this.

“I see the moon all right.”

At first, I thought the moon refers to the slang word for naked buttocks but I'm not sure about it because Letitia said 'the moon' not 'moons'.

Can the moon be used to say the buttocks?

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    What is the source of that bit of text?
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Jun 11, 2020 at 5:57
  • 'Lovecraft Country' by Matt Ruff, I believe. To the OP, yes, the moon can be used to refer to the buttocks. Exposing one's own bare buttocks as an insult or joke is called 'mooning'.
    – Michael Harvey
    Jun 11, 2020 at 6:06
  • It seems that she said I can understand the joke here clearly in some allegorical way.
    – kngram
    Jun 11, 2020 at 8:16

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

To "moon" somebody is to expose your buttocks. Merriam-Webster defines "moon" like this:

Definition of moon (Entry 2 of 2)
[...]
2 slang : to expose one's naked buttocks to

Since Hecate is sometimes associated with the goddess of the Moon (the one in the sky), and the statue is naked (exposing the buttocks), Letitia is making a pun based on these facts. Since the goddess is associated with the Moon, and her buttocks are visible, Letitia is playing with words based on the different meanings of the word "moon".

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .