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Friday, July 18, 2014

Philtra

Linda Lorenzo


Quite a few years ago, before the internet was in full swing I purchased these 6 reference books at the Book Warehouse. They are extremely useful for satisfying my curiosity and they have only one defect. The print is so small that even my reading bifocals strain my eyes. 



A couple of days ago I was leafing through the Shakespeare volumes. Then I became curious at my pristine (virgin?) copy of The Worsdworth Dictionary of Sex. It seems I had never perused it. In the Ps I found between:

Philomeitrax in ancient Greece, is a mature man who loves boys in their prime. The great tragedian Sophocles was called a philomeitrax, which was considered a title of honour. (Meitrax, ‘beautiful.’)

and:

Phimoslotomy a surgical procedure for relieving a condition of phimosis, or constriction of the foreskin.

Philtrum the vertical groove in the centre of the upper lip. The term is derived from the Greek philtron, meaning ‘philter, charm,’ referencing to the fact that this feature is usually considered attractive. Plural philtra.



I immediately looked through my files to find what I thought was a vertical line between the upper lip (dividing it) and on the upper lip. It was to no avail. My reference books were failing. I went to the obvious place the internet to find that either my reference dictionary has it wrong or the internet has it right. 



If indeed the philtrum is above the upper lip then I  have scores of beautiful women with this attractive feature. And of course the philtrum is not limited to women but to men, too. It seems that Cary Grant had an unusually nice one and so does Art Bergmann.

Art Bergmann