the love that dare not speak its name

[flashpig]

I looked on the internet to try and find what this meant because, embarassingly, I hadn't got a clue.

 

Anyway, did Oscar Wilde's friend coin it, or just pinch it from somewhere else because I had assumed it was older than that.

[Quizmonster]

It appears to have originated in a poem by Lord Alfred Douglas - Wilde's friend, as you call him. Click http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/poemsofdouglas.htm

and scroll down to the last line of the first of the two poems there.

[Peter Pedant]

Hi Flash, you're obviously having to do a bit on the divine Oscar. I thought the phrase was current in the Naughty Nineties.

I was told (and I checked and it was true) that people know how Oscar and his circle talked (should you need to add colour to your essay) because people followed him around and took down his conversation verbatim.

Divine meant wonderful or totally cool

quite or too meant very

too too Divine - very good indeed

Divine could be shortened to deevy

or left out altogether - as in "quet too too......"