When I was growing up, it was customary to refer to a man’s sexual apparatus euphemistically as “willie”, “jimmy” or some other unfortunate’s Christian name. It took me a long time to catch on to the true meaning of “Charlie’s dead” – an omission in my vernacular that led to embarrassing consequences since it means, your fly is undone. It all seems rather silly now, but it must have made everyone feel comfortable at the time.

Nowadays, of course, the politically correct thing to do is to bring up one’s children to use the correct names – whose utterance once caused such embarrassment – for all anatomical paraphernalia. So at the dinner table, when little Johnny casually refers to the fact that his penis is itching, the proud parents look at him with the smug satisfaction that accompanies those who have broken free of the petit bourgeois mores of their forebears.

However, even for the penis and vagina generation, there are some words that are still taboo:

Church sanctioned for campaign against “sodomy”
The Advertising Standards Authority says Church advert on homosexuality broke decency standards

A church has been sanctioned by the UK advertising regulator for a campaign against “sodomy” in which a Bible verse was used to describe homosexuality as an “abomination”.

The Advertising Standards Authority has has upheld a complaint against the regional press advertisement, headlined “The Word of God Against Sodomy” in capital letters.

The authority ruled that the advertisement, placed in the Belfast News Letter by the Sandown Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast, caused “serious offence” and broke its standards on decency.

In its adjudication the authority, which received seven complaints, rejected the suggestion that the advertisement could provoke violence against gay and lesbian people but said it was offensive and should not be repeated.