197: Ejaculate (Sherlock Holmes) Jun 23, 2015
Everyone knows all too well the verbal use of 'ejaculate' in sexual
contexts. Another use of this word, however, is also used to mean "to
say something quickly and suddenly". In Sherlock Holmes, this word was
used 23 times, such as in the passage:
"So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of shag which I had seen upon the previous night."
Additionally, the character of Mrs. St. Clair’s husband, "ejaculates at her from a second-floor window".
"So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of shag which I had seen upon the previous night."
Additionally, the character of Mrs. St. Clair’s husband, "ejaculates at her from a second-floor window".