Etymology

beast with two backs

Today it means: Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position. Full definition →

French la beste à deux doz
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The story

  1. French · calque ofla beste à deux doz
  2. English todaybeast with two backs

First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations. Supposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.