Youths of all eras have been creative about communicating with their honeys: Today, Mental Floss explains the sexy coded acronyms of 1930s letter-writing lovers, some of which are racy enough to make today’s sexters blush.
A historian named Simon Garfield just published a book about abbreviations and acronyms, called To The Letter, and he reports that before and during World War II, letters were absolutely getting wild. Soldiers particularly were fans of using coded acronyms to let their sweethearts know they were thinking of them without risking censure or public embarrassment.
A sampling:
Rated G
FRANCE: Friendship Remains And Never Can End
ITALY: I Trust And Love You
FRANCE seems to be way friend-zoning the recipient (kind to hide that from prying eyes). ITALY seems like one of those things you say when you actually mean the opposite thing.
Rated PG
HOLLAND: Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies
Desperate and clingy, that HOLLAND.
Rated PG-13
MALAYA: My Ardent Lips Await Your Arrival
BURMA: Be Undressed/Upstairs Ready My Angel
MALAYA is a little purple and sentimental. Some nice ambiguity in BURMA. Sweet pet name at the end.
Rated R
NORWICH: (k)Nickers Off Ready When I Come Home
VENICE: Very Excited Now I Caress Everywhere
EGYPT: Eager to Grab Your Pretty Tits
CHINA: Come Home I’m Naked Already
Getting to the point with these locales. Prepare yourselves, letter-writers, you got a CHINA demand.
Rated R+
ENGLAND: Every Naked Girl Loves A Naked Dick
Well, there we are, in merry old England. Was AMERICA too triple-X to include? A MAGICAL EROTIC REWARD IRRESISTIBLY CRAVED, ANGEL.
